Phantom of a chance
by Keyblader3421
Summary: Phantomtide is just after a normal life, even among the flames of war. But the Nightwing-Seawing has the most abnormal luck, and his curiosity betters his common sense and leads him to a column of smoke. Now caught in the tides of Destiny, he befriends five dragonets and joins them in order to end the war. Update-12/25/15: The dragon in the cover image is the story's protagonist.
1. And so it begins

-One day ago-

He couldn't believe it. A lifetime of avoiding pursuers, defeating those who wished to see him dead, and it all ended with him marching in chains. And to think, he was sitting comfortably on a sandy beach, listening to the soothing waves only two days ago.

Now he and six others were captured by the ruthless Skywing Queen as sport in her blood-soaked arena…

 _-Three days ago-_

Phantomtide lay on the beach, eyes closed as he listened to the waves gently lapping on the shore just in arm's reach of the resting dragon. All the struggles he endured, the battles he had survived, now mattered little as he finally had the chance to relax. The shade from the surrounding trees provided ample cover for the Nightwing-Seawing hybrid. He fell into sleep, knowing the war wouldn't reach him...for the duration of his little snooze. As slumber claimed him, his thoughts drifted to his friends, who'd he hadn't seen since he was thrown into the war.

- _Two days ago-_

He was out hunting, searching for a meal that could sate his growling stomach. After several minutes of prowling around, Phantomtide had caught several small animals, but he wanted to score a big one before lunch. Moving through an open patch of land, he saw a rusty red Skywing fly through the air and into a cave opening in a mountain nearby. He shook his head, then continued on with the hunt. But it ate away at him, the rusty dragon he knew as a Talons of Peace. He resolved to find out what was there.

- _Now-_

 _How could I have been such a idiot? I saw the smoke, and yet I went ahead to check it out, like any other dragon would've done outta curiosity. But, of course my luck never lasts forever. I would get caught by one of the most cruel and sadistic Queens in history._

Phantomtide thought as he looked over the edge of the narrow stone platform towards the arena down below, cursing at himself at his amateurish mistake. He glanced at the thin metal clamps on the outer edge of his wings, and the ones that twisted around his neck and legs, then they continued from him to all the other prisoners. He sighed. _Oh, if only she could see me now, she'd laugh her head off. The phantom of the tide, a enslaved gladiator! This won't get any worse, unless they put me up against the champion or veterans in the first deathmatch._ He looked around the other spires, taking note of the other prisoners. He could see the Mudwing and Nightwing he had been captured with, but not any of the others. _What's this?_ He noticed a Skywing hovering around the Mudwing, with zero armor. Squinting, he saw that smoke seemed to rise from her scales, puzzling him. _Smoke from the scales...and smoke always means fire. Is that even possible, having fire in the scales?!_ He continued to observe, but the Skywing flew down, as dragons started filling the seats of the arena below, mostly Skywings, but with Sandwings and Mudwings as well. _Well, here we are. I better not be the lucky contestant. But...if I am, I need to be smart, or I'll die…..._ The gathered crowd bowed as their queen, Scarlet, stepped out of a balcony, followed by guards and a pale grey marble tree with a dragon on it.

 _Is that...The Rainwing? From earlier?_

"Well?" Scarlet's voice carried across and up the area. "What do you think of my new art?" _Art?! Why that lousy-Hm?_ Two Skywing guards flew up towards his spire, and before he knew it, he was being taken down to the arena, along with a cursing Sandwing and a Seawing, which he guessed he was to fight. The Sandwing was dropped in a heap towards the arena's center, opposite the Skywing with the smoldering scales. Knowing his opponent would be the Seawing, he focused on the fight below, unsure if he had what it took to survive, and more importantly, to kill his chosen adversary.


	2. Hand in hand

"Watch this carefully, you two, because you two are next on the list." Scarlet suggested to the hybrid and Seawing, which they quickly took to watching. A Skywing guard stood in the center of the arena and clapped his wings thunderously until all quieted down.

"After four wins, Horizon the Sandwing -formly, and unwisely, a soldier in Blaze's army- has been challenged to a match with the Queen's Champion, Peril. Claws up, fire ready! Fight!" He sprang out of the arena, leaving the combatants facing each other. Horizon shrank back against the far wall, hissing all the way. _Well now,_ Phantomtide thought, _let's see if my theory is correct. This Skywing, Peril, seems to have smoke in her scales. So, does she have fire in her claws?_ A agonizing scream tore him from his thoughts. Peril had shortened the distance between her and Horizon and was now pinning him back. The screaming from the Sandwing intensified into a long ear-shattering wail. As she let go, he saw the scorched talon mark on Horizon's scales. _That confirms it. Now I have to be careful, especially since I am gonna fight this Seawing. If I win, there's the chance Scarlet will make me fight Peril. Damnation, if I don't survive here...she'll never know! Forgive me, Pine…_

"Hey! Quite daydreamin'! You and sunshine are up next, so get movin'!" A gruff voice snapped him back to reality, as he was dropped opposite the Seawing, in between them the same Skywing from earlier. He saw Peril fly to the spot they were just waiting at. _Still here? Then...luck is rotten as usual._

"And now, a special treat for you all! Gull the Seawing, with three wins is heading to a challenge from Peril, if he wins this one. But his opponent is rarer than rare, a hybrid of Nightwing and Seawing! I give you, Phantomtide! Claws up, teeth ready, fight!" The guard bolted into the air, leaving them to fight.

"I noticed your horns, and the webs between your talons. Gills on both sides of the neck too. I don't loathe much, but mongrels like you...aren't natural. So, that means you die."

"And I'd welcome it, but you stand little chance against smoky-scales. So, if I get out of this, I have no need to go up against the Champion. That means I'm going to be killing you. So sorry." The Seawing growled threateningly before charging Phantomtide. Moving faster than the other dragon, he dodged and slashed the side of the dragon's face. Before anyone could react, blood spewed everything from multiple opened wounds on Gull and he toppled over, completely torn apart.

"Fast in water, a average Seawing. Fast in water, faster on land, is the phantom of the tide. Farewell, Gull." Phantomtide slashed the major artery on the Seawing's neck, letting the Seawing bleed out. "And that's for calling me a mongrel, bird-brain." _But this tactic won't work forever. If I keep winning, I'll be against smoky-scales over there._ He glanced upwards toward Peril. _Then, luck runs dry. Typical._

"It seems Gull couldn't keep up his streak. Pity, although we did get a more brilliant show then the last. Dismissed."

The two guards from way earlier took Phantomtide back to the spire as Scarlet addressed the present dragons. _Well, ain't that great? Now there's two monsters here, the ghost and smoky-scales. I saw that look in her eyes, of partial terror. Ruthless and fast killer, against her fire. Long shot, but I could take her down, perhaps at the cost of my own life. Guess I'll see no matter what. She'll be in touch soon enough. Life and death, for us, they go hand in hand. Heh._


	3. The two monsters

The sun was still in the sky, as Phantomtide pondered on the topic of food. He hadn't been fed anything, to which he assumed he wasn't expected to have survived his first opponent. Then a black object dropped next to him, as a wave of heat washed over him. He looked at something resembling a charred duck, then looked up to see Peril hovering around him.

"I hope you don't mind your food overdone. But seeing you like that, I figured you had enough hardships."

"Eh, it's not bad. I've always been prone of dozing off while I cook meat." He ate the duck into one bite, then grimaced. "Though the taste doesn't improve with prolonged exposure. Why'd you bring it, outta all the other Skywing guards and whatnot?"

"Because I wanted to talk to you, monster to monster. I'm one thing, but you have no remorse as you killed that Seawing." Her comment made him flinch, as he did kill Gull without guilt.

"Not then. Life and death, not really free to make your own decisions half the time. Then you spend many thoughts about your actions. My reasoning is that I fight for my life, despite being a hybrid hated across all borders. What's your reason, Peril? I can take an accurate guess. May I?"

"Maybe later. I've got another to see."

"Yeah, yeah. Say hi to him for me." Peril glanced at him just as she turned.

"Yes, I saw you with the Mudwing. Go." With that, she flew off in a hurry, leaving him to rest after the battle.

When he woke up the next morning, the same guards came and unchained him, then flew him down to the palace.

"Oi, what's going on?! I thought prisoners went into the arena!

"Queen's personal orders. She's got something special planned, and you're gonna be there to hear about it."

"Word's she taking a liking to you. Meaning you might not last long." At that, he shut his mouth, knowing Scarlet had already planned out a gruesome end for him. _Well, she won't be getting that satisfaction! Not ever. But what about those dragonets…?_ His train of thought was stopped as the guards pushed him into the throne room. Scarlet was seated on top of a cloud-like rock column, staring down at him and the other Nightwing, who was in a submissive bow. Two Skywings stood in front of the tree that the Rainwing was still on, and the gold all over made Phantomtide's head hurt. As he adjusted to the glare, he heard someone else approach. Turning his head, he saw the Mudwing come in. He crouched beside the Nightwing and whispered something, to which the reply was a tiny shake of the head.

"The Nightwing is trying to tell you that it's _rude_ to talk to anyone before the queen in her own throne room," Scarlet said. "First you bow to me, then you stay put until I'm ready to address you all. Really, what are they teaching dragonets these days? It's so very disrespectful." At that, the Mudwing tried to match the bowing position of his friend. Scarlet studied her claws, until her gaze fell upon Phantomtide.

"So, defiant and brutal. I'm finding you more thrilling by the second, phantom." Scarlet spoke, expecting a reply, but a commotion from the tunnel outside got everyone's attention. Phantomtide directed his gaze to a whole package of Skywings dragging in the Seawing dragonet as she snapped at them. She was rolled alongside the Mudwing, and the guards jumped back.

"Well, hello," The queen said, looking amused. "We've been waiting for you. I gather you're enjoying your stay?"

"This is an outrage," hissed the Seawing. "How can you treat dragons this way? Especially us! We're the-"

"-dragonets of destiny, yes, very thrilling," Scarlet finished for her. "I understand you three have been underground for the last six years, so perhaps you haven't heard; unlike this one here. Care to finish?" She asked Phantomtide, expecting him to do so.

"...Not all of Pyrrhia wants war to end."

"Correct, and I personally think the war is quite entertaining," the queen went on. "I pick up lots of contenders for my arena right from the battlefield. And it's a terrific distraction-"

"For those who would otherwise try for the throne." Scarlet stared at the hybrid.

"So it's all right with both of you that hundreds of dragons have died?!" The Seawing's comment stung him deeply.

"As if you know anything about that. Have you ever been in a real battle? Do you really know anything about this war? Seen hundreds of dragons die?"

"We've studied it, we know it's awful. We know innocent dragons are getting hurt."

"Why don't you explain this?" Scarlet asked Phantomtide. "You've done it long enough alone to know the answer."

"...Fighting comes naturally to dragons, even more so when trying to solve a problem...causing war."

'Exactly, and they should know -attacking me when you barely met me." Scarlet flicked her tail forward, showing the ugly red gash on the weak spot. _Well, these three don't seem that bad, pulling a stunt like that. Still…_

"And who should be the next Sandwing Queen? Burn, Blister, or Blaze? I'd love to know if you've already decided that, from the wisdom and wide experience of your safe little underground cave."

"That's not our fault, we _wanted_ to be out in the world." Scarlet looked amused once again, disturbing them.

"Hilarious. As if you'd survive this long out there. Your minders _did_ tell you what happened to all the other dragonets born on the brightest night?"

"What, like your own daughter?" Phantomtide replied, making everyone stared at him. "Common knowledge, one of the eggs due to hatch on the brightest night came from the Skywings' own royal hatchery."

"Well, I won't go into details, but it was very sad. On the other hand, at least my own blood wouldn't be a threat." _That's what you think, Scarlet. A lot more surprises are in store for you._

"That misshapen dragonet, and him, will be perfect presents for her."

"You can't give Sunny to Burn! Or even him!" The Seawing flared.

"I can do whatever I like. This is my kingdom."

"Let's see how long that'll last."

"What about Glory? What's wrong?"

"Naturally like that."

"Guards, please take the mongrel back to his spire. He's beginning to annoy me." Phantomtide was grabbed by the two guards and flown back to his spire, knowing one of the dragonets would be put into the arena. _But can they do it? Turn their hearts to ice and take the life of another dragon? Hm..._


	4. Poisoned surprise

After being chained back up on the spire, Phantomtide thought of which dragonet was to fight _. If anything, Scarlet wants 'thrilling.' So probably something she hasn't seen before...Seawings aren't new, the Mudwings are Scarlet's allies...So maybe him. The Nightwing's not a fighter though. So I guess the Mudwing volunteered. Not much I can do from here...except for that. But I have to be careful…_ He looked downwards as the Mudwing stepped into the arena with the guards dropping a hissing Icewing opposite the dragonet. _You better win, Mudwing!_ Phantomtide silently cheered him on. The same announcer from before strutted into the arena center and bellowed at the crowd.

"After last month's battle with Blaze's army, our queen's dungeon were stuffed with Icewing prisoners of war. Only nine have survived. After two wins, I give you - Fjord of the Icewings! And in his corner, an unusual case - a Mudwing, but not one of our allies. No,this dragonet was found hiding under our mountains, protected by the Talons of Peace. Is he one of the dragonets of destiny? Not if he loses this battle!" A murmur of laughter rippled through the arena. Oh, ha ha ha. Very funny. "If these prophesied dragonets are as wonderful and legendary as they're supposed to be, this should be a showdown to remember. I hope you're prepared to impress us, dragon of the mud. I present to you...Clay of the Mudwings! Claws up, teeth ready! Fight!" _Oh, his name's Clay. Now then, this fight should be pretty easy to analyze. Fire can stop ice, and neither have abnormalities like me or Peril. However, two wins to none...Clay is outmatched. He's never killed to my knowledge...However, Fjord had killed two others. That plays against Clay's chances, so battling unlike a Mudwing may only be the way he can pull ahead. Good luck, Clay. And be smart._

As the fight dragged on, Fjord had managed to pin Clay down. Phantomtide tried to find an opening, but no such luck, per the usual. Then a yell grabbed his attention. The Seawing, Clay's friend, was thrashing in the wire net. _Perfect! Here goes nothing!_ He directed his gaze to a spear next to a guard, but a horrifying scream shifted his attention. Black liquid was splashed all over Fjord, which he guessed to be acid or venom or a mix of both. Jerking his gaze around, he saw the Rainwing next to Scarlet -Glory- quickly lay back down on the branch she was on. _Wait, that was her? Rainwings have...venom? In that case...She's deadlier than Peril and I combined!_ He gulped, fearfully of what might happen if he was thrown up against her friends. _Hopefully I can make through without that. But until then..._ He yawned, then quickly dozed off, thinking nice thoughts to ease him of what he saw.

When he woke, his first thought was to look down. Below was a new set-up, similar to a trial. _Okay, I clearly overslept. So what did I miss?_ Observing the scene, he noticed a dead Skywing, Peril, Scarlet, the announcer, and the Skywing that was captured alongside him and the dragonets. _Hmm...I'll have to find out later...provided I get fed or someone comes to chat. Probably the former. If anything, please be Peril._

Time passed on, and the expected happened. Peril hovered over him for the second time in a row.

"You're back, finally. If you have something on your mind, I slept through whatever happened." At that, Peril slightly laughed, then explained.

"Basically, there was a trial. The accused is actually my mother, so I'm standing up for her in a Champion's Shield. Also, Burn is coming, and my best friend is dead. Scarlet killed him…"

"And you're here, because she's mad at you. Why not Clay, is what I'm wondering. Are you...mad at him?"

"No, of course not! It's just...I need someone to talk to, someone like me."

"I...see. It's easier when you're talking to a similar dragon, someone who can kill in a moment's notice. Understood."

"My mother, Kestrel. I have to fight someone of Scarlet's choice in order free her. I'm worried it'll be Clay, or you."

"It's your mother. I'm not expecting you to go easy either way. Now get going before Scarlet notices you're gone. I don't think she's especially pleased with you today. Talk later?" She nodded, dropped him another charred bird, then flew off quickly. He slowly eat the meat this time, pondering what she really came to talk about. Possibly killing, without remorse. With that, he dozed off again.

He awoke with a jolt, as an eerie note rang through his head. _Huh…? Whassit?_ Phantomtide looked around for the source, confused and half-awake. The sound was strange to him.

Oh, the dragonets are coming...They're coming to save the day...More eerie notes came with the singing. They're coming to fight...for they know what's right...the dragonets… Now fully sober and awake, Phantomtide returned the eerie-sounding song.

"Oh, the dragonets are coming…"

"They're coming to save the day…"

"They're coming to fight...for they know what's right...the dragonets…" As the song went on, more voices joined in, giving Phantomtide a hopeful feeling. At the sixth time through the song, a blast of fire shot through the arena doors, then Scarlet stormed onto the sand with a large Sandwing he unfortunately recognized as Burn.

"Stop that infernal noise right now!" The Sandwing roared, and the singing broke off at once.

"You," Scarlet growled, pointing to the Seawing dragonet. "And you," She pointed to the Nightwing. "And you," She glared at Phantomtide. "And - well, probably not you, but get down here anyway," She snarled at Clay. Skywing soldiers spilled out of the tunnel and brought down the four. "Bring them this way," Scarlet snapped, stomping into the tunnel with Burn. _Well, whatever happens now, at least it ain't by myself._


	5. Meeting the dragonets

They stopped at Peril's cave. She was resting one of the window ledges, staring out at the sky. As they came in, she turned and gave Scarlet a cold look. The queen's eyes darted to the empty wall, below which lay a ash pile. _That must've been a portrait of Scarlet. Well-played, smoky-scales._

"Out," she said to Peril.

"This is my room!" Peril snapped back.

"I'm the queen here, you do as I say. Go sleep in the arena. If anyone else tries to sing, fly up and burn out his tongue." Peril's tail lashed furiously, then she stormed out after a moment. As she did, her gaze shifted and met Phantomtide's, from which he caught a brief glimpse of confusion and anger. He moved into the cave before anyone could push him in or speak. The dragonets followed suit.

"You three will not interrupt my feast again," Scarlet hissed "I'm sure you're very amused with yourselves."

"Why don't you killed them?" Burn asked, glaring at the dragonets. To Phantomtide, it seemed those three were the focus of the royals' attention.

"Because that wouldn't be fun," Scarlet answered. "I want to see them fight, including that one. We have a whole day of entertainment planned for tomorrow. It's my hatching day! I want it to be thrilling." _I'm starting to hate that word. I'm gonna enjoy pay-back time._

"But if those three _are_ the dragonets of the prophecy, then the best way to break the prophecy is to kill them."

"Well...perhaps. But that didn't work so well for you, did it? Everyone knows about the Skywing egg - all the Skywing eggs, in fact." _Oh, right. Am I the only dragon, besides Pine, from the outside that knows the Skywing dragonet is alive and well? All the better, Scarlet doesn't need to know._ He laid down, ignoring the conversation, hoping Scarlet and Burn would just leave already. When they did leave, Phantomtide opened his eyes to see a wall of fire blocking the exit. Turning his head, he saw the Seawing barrel into Clay.

"Ow!"

"I'm so glad you're alive, you incredibly huge idiot."

"So am I. But I'm even more glad you two are alive."

"Sorry to spoil this, but you two realize that Scarlet put him in here with us?" All three dragonets looked directly at Phantomtide, making him feel awkward.

"At least he isn't psychotic, like Scarlet's pet."

"You're called Phantomtide, right?" Clay asked. "I'm Clay, and my friends here are Starflight and Tsunami."

"A pleasure. I assume one of you three started that song out there?"

"That was pretty smart," Starflight said to Tsunami. "But I have no idea how you managed to pull a melody out of your ear after being tone-deaf your whole life." _I'll leave them to it. Sleeping by actual warmth this time is better._ As he dozed off, the voices of the others echoed through his mind's abyss.

Someone shook him awake. Phantomtide opened his eyes to find Tsunami standing right over him.

"Listen up, you. Me and my friends are going to try and escape tomorrow somehow, while getting the other two of us out. But those two want your help, since you're a prisoner like all of us."

"...I ain't planning on staying here. Sign me up, and I'll help out. Those other two...who are they?"

"Sunny and Glory. A...different Sandwing and the Rainwing."

"Tomorrow, free Sandwing and Rainwing, then escape...I assume you three have a plan to get that started?"

"We'll figure something out." Tsunami said, then flopped on top of Clay along with Starflight. He merely shut his eyes.

"Three moons, this is actually happening. Acquainted with the dragonets, and readying to escape..." With that, he went back into slumber.


	6. Hatchday begins

The roaring of dragons woke them up the next morning. They barely had time to scramble onto their feet before guards poured into the cave. Several of them grabbed Tsunami and pushed her towards the arena, The rest herding the other three up the tunnel.

"Wait!" Clay cried. "Where is she going? Why can't we go with her?"

"Listen to him. _Oh, please hurry up and kill me."_

"Don't worry, it'll be your turn soon-"

"Shut up and just take us wherever!" Phantomtide snapped at the guards, as they were shoved up a flight of long, wide black stairs and emerged into bright sunlight. They stood on the queen's balcony, overlooking the arena. Scarlet was already there, lounging in her throne. She smirked at them.

"I thought you'd appreciate the best view in the house for this." She nodded at the arena, where Tsunami was snapping and clawing at nearby guards. The three got fat chains wound around their necks, which were bolted into rings on the balcony floor, Clay and Starflight to Scarlet's right, Phantomtide to her left. The Rainwing was rolled forward into the sunlight. She was still lying in relaxed loops around the tree, with waves of emerald green and peacock blue drifting through Glory's scales. The tree was placed near Phantomtide, which he instantly knew that a possible plan was handed to him. Burn's black eyes were fixed on Glory as well.

"Oh, that's my new toy. Pretty, isn't she? I bet I'm the only queen with my very own Rainwing."

"Waste of food." Burn muttered, but her expression was envious.

"She doesn't eat much, she's more like an exotic plant than a dragon. Water, lots of sunshine, a little fruit,and a monkey here and there. Worth it until I get bored of her anyway."

" _She wouldn't be saying that if she knew your little secret."_ Phantomtide whispered quietly enough for only Glory to hear him say anything. " _I know about your little venom trick. And I think you might be able to use it to help your friends."_

"Down on the sands, we have one of the so-called dragonets of destiny. Are they really so great and powerful? This is how we find out. I give you...Tsunami of the Seawings!"

" _What are you exactly talking about?"_

" _I met your friends. They asked me to help them get out, then rescue you and Sunny."_ Glory remained quiet after that. Phantomtide directed his attention back to the fight, Tsunami, and the announcer.

'AHEM," The Skywing continued. "Some of you may remember a dragon a few months back who refused to fight."

"BOOOOOOOOO!" The crowd chanted obediently.

"Indeed. Tried to start a regular prison revolution, didn't he? Tried to get all the dragons to stop fighting. Well, clearly he had to be taught a lesson, or we'd all be lying in our caves right now, bored out of our skulls. Am I right?"

"Don't I wish…" Phantomtide grumbled under the loud cheer of the crowd's enthusiastic agreement.

"So what's the best way to punish a Seawing?"

"Chop off his head!"

"Stuff grass in his gills!"

"Drown him!"

"Say whaaaat?!" Phantomtide burst into laughter at the last suggestion.

"All good suggestions, but no. The best way to punish a Seawing - is to take away their water. _All_ their water. For months." Phantomtide quickly put two and two together. He had seen several Seawings deprived of water, and had to fight each one. They were insane from the dehydration, and only death could end up helping them. Tsunami looked up at the queen's balcony, her scales pale with horror. The writhing Seawing dropped opposite of the Dragonet by the guards. He was twice as big as Tsunami, with talons as sharp and curved as fishhooks. Dried blood flecked his mouth as if he'd been trying to drink from his own veins. His scales were dull and crusted, and his dark green eyes were bloodshot and rolling wildly in his emaciated skull. He looked completely insane, but also familiar to the hybrid. As he tried to recall where he seen the now-deranged dragon,

"Dehydrated, mentally unstable, and ready to fight at last. It's Gill of the Seawings! Claws up, tails ready! Fight!" In a horrifying heartbeat, he recognized the name. He had met Gill before, when the Seawing king had caught wind of Phantomtide's presence in the Kingdom of the Sea. The noble leader he knew was gone from the dragon, replaced by a mindless animal. Another friend he had made was claimed by the war and its atrocities. Sorrow racked the hybrid, as he watched the former king mindlessly trying to kill Tsunami. He looked down and closed his eyes, unable to continue watching. After a good few moments, he heard,

"I've won," Phantomtide opened his eyes to see Tsunami pinning down the other Seawing. "You all can see that. We can end this now, without killing anyone. I ask you all to let me let him live!" The arena was filled with a stunned silence, but the outcome wouldn't ever change. Someone had to die, and if Tsunami didn't kill him, he would be on her in a heartbeat.

"KILL HIM!" Several Skywings shouted at once. "Snap his neck! Pull out his teeth! Poop, gouge his eyes! Something gory! Death! Death! Death! Death!" All the dragons shouted at Tsunami in unison.

"Perhaps our 'dragonet of destiny' doesn't have the stomach for battle," Scarlet called out snidely. 'Maybe war is _too scary_ for her. Perhaps she'd like to go back into hiding instead?" _And there's the final straw._ Phantomtide thought, as Tsunami lifted her chin and stared straight into Scarlet's eyes. With a wrench of her talons, she snapped Gill's neck in one clean break, causing Phantomtide to flinch at the sight and sound. Her expression said, all too clearly, _I'm imagining this is you._


	7. Morrowseer arrives

"Disappointing." Scarlet said to Burn, as the crowd of dragons erupted in cheers.

"Catastrophic." Burn growled. "Look, the idiots love her now." Dragons were leaning over the top of arena walls to throw small jewels at Tsunami. Several small emeralds bounced off her scales as she dropped Gill's head and stepped back from his limp body. Tsunami gave the cheering dragons a disgusted look, but that didn't stop them.

"Don't worry, I have a plan." Scarlet said, rubbing her front talons together. "But now it's time for the Nightwing! My hatching-day present to me!"

"Wait!" Clay cried as the guards started to unchain Starflight. "Let me fight for him instead!"

"These dragonets." Scarlet waved a claws at Burn. "Constantly pushing and shoving to save each other. It's just the weirdest thing."

" _She would know,_ " Glory whispered to Phantomtide, " _She doesn't have friends._ " He almost burst into laughter when the Rainwing said that snide remark.

"You're not spoiling this for me, Mudwing. I've been dying to see the Nightwing fight. He's so very sparkly and good-looking. I think after he's dead I'll cut off his wings and hang them on my throne room walls. Wouldn't that be magnificent? All those silver scales sparkling like diamonds against obsidian. I love it."

"This is a frivolous palace." Burn muttered.

"Careful how you speak of your allies. Remember you need us." Burn shifted her wings and kept her mouth shut. Then Starflight was shoved out of the tunnel. _Wait, Scarlet is putting him against her? Not in a million years._

"The rarest of all dragons," The announcer called from a ledge opposite of the queen's balcony. "A real, live, and full Nightwing. Is he the dragonet of the prophecy? Let's see what happens when two of them have to fight each other. Tsunami of the Seawings and Starflight of the Nightwings! Claws up, teeth ready! Fight!"

" _Worst idea ever. Having two dragons who lived all their life together fight each other would never work, ever._ " Phantomtide whispered to Glory, who nodded slightly in response. Slowly Tsunami walked over to Starflight. He opened his wings, and she leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder.

"BOOO...ooo?" called a solitary voice from the crowd, dropping off as no one joined in.

"Awwwww," went a few dragons in the upper seats, far enough from the queen that they couldn't be recognized.

"This is get worse and worse." Burn hissed through gritted teeth. Phantomtide silently chuckled at the thought of Burn getting flustered.

"Aren't you going to fight?" Scarlet called. Tsunami and Starflight didn't even look up. "That's very annoying. Go on, you've been stuck with each other for years. You must be ready to kill her, Nightwing. Doesn't she drive you mad?" No reply came. "No?" Scarlet leaned forward. "Oh, fine, be the worst gladiators ever. Vermilion! Release the scavengers!" Vermilion flapped his wings, and a huge cage came rolling out of the tunnel. The announcer flew to the top of it and bit down to sever the cord that held the door. The door fell open, and four scavengers burst onto the sand, waving claws and squeaking ferociously.

"Scavengers? To kill the dragonets of the prophecy? Are you mad?" Burn snarled.

"Well, it only took one to get your mother." Scarlet observed. Burn's head whipped around, her venomous tail arching up toward the Skywing queen. "Oh, calm down." Scarlet said with a snort. "It'll be fun. I've got more things waiting in the wings to kill them if this doesn't work. This is the only pure Nightwing I'll probably ever get in my arena, and I want to see him fight everything." Tsunami pushed Starflight back against the wall and spread her wings in front of him, baring her teeth at the scavengers. Three of them ran right at her; the fourth took one look and bolted for the tunnel entrance. _Huh. Didn't expect scavengers to pull such a move. Seems like there's more to them than I originally thought...but, still..._ One of the scavengers went flying into the seats with a swipe from Tsunami. The scavenger landed, screaming, in one Skywing's outstretched talons, and the dragon promptly ate him. The other two skidded to a stop and back-pedaled out of Tsunami's reach. She flicked her tongue at them.

"This is going well." Burn muttered. 'That Nightwing isn't even doing anything."

"The other two scavengers are female." Scarlet pointed out. "They sometimes last a bit longer." One of the scavengers pointed, and they split up, circling Tsunami from different directions. They approached slowly, each holding out a silvery claw. Tsunami eyed them until she couldn't watch them both at once. Then she turned and lunged at the one on her left. That one darted under her talons and stabbed at her underbelly. Tsunami yelped and reached to grab the scavenger, but it had already scurried away. At the same time, the other scavenger shot behind Tsunami's back and threw herself at Starflight. The Nightwing tried to bat her away like Tsunami had done, but she swerved around his claws. Suddenly she was climbing up his front leg and before he could shake her off, she scrabbled onto his back. _Wow...these scavengers are seriously brave, or really stupid...but since it seems Starflight has no combat strengths...probably the scholarly type..._ Starflight tried to twist his head over his shoulder to bite at the scavenger, but she moved fast, clinging to his scales like a salamander going up a rock. He shook his head furiously and reached up to claw her off. She wriggled aside, causing him to claw his own neck. A thin trail of blood trickled from his scales.

"Not very impressive." Scarlet sniffed. "I suppose they can't read scavenger minds. Not enough going on in there." _She thinks that, even after watching this?_ Still...that scavenger was getting close to Starflight's snout. _If she stabbed that claw into one of his eyes…_

"Tsunami!" Both Phantomtide and Clay yelled, then glanced at the other. The Seawing was halfway across the arena, chasing the scavenger who'd attacked her. Tsunami was faster, but the scavenger kept changing directions and running underneath her. At their call, Tsunami whipped around and saw Starflight's danger. She raced toward him, but before she got there, Starflight suddenly gritted his teeth and slammed his head to the ground. The scavenger was flung forward over his horns, landing hard and rolling into the wall. Almost instantly she was up and staggering away from his teeth, which snapped on empty air. Starflight didn't chase her. He stood rubbing his head, watching the scavenger stumble on the churned-up sand. When Tsunami started past him, he reached out and stopped her. Tsunami's own scavenger ran by and helped Starflight's scavenger lean against the wall. The two scavengers glared at the stadium full of dragons. Loud angry squeaking noises came from both of them.

"You're right." Scarlet said with a sigh to Burn. "This isn't nearly as thrilling as I thought it would be. Let's go straight to the Icewings!" She shouted to Vermilion. He signaled, and guards took off from all over the stadium. Phantomtide watched as they scattered to the Icewing prisoners, at least eight up there. He remembering hearing about a hatred Icewings had for Nightwings from an incident long ago.

"Finally a smart idea." Burn hissed.

"Let me fight, too!" Clay pleaded. "Put me in there with him!"

"Me as well!" Phantomtide wasn't about to let the three dragonets die, especially after he made them a promise. And I always keep my word. Suddenly a cloud seemed to pass over the sun. The fluttering of wings made all the dragons looked up as a wave of darkness flew overhead. One piece of the darkness separated from the rest and spiraled down into the arena, ducking under the web of wires. As he descended magnificently onto the sand, wings outstretched, Phantomtide recognized the black dragon. One of few dragons he hated the most, Morrowseer the Nightwing had arrived.


	8. Hatching the plan

The sight of the Nightwing boiled Phantomtide's blood. One of the Nightwings who despised him so much to send assassins after him too often. A hush fell over the arena. The Skywing guards hovered up in the sky, halfway through unchaining the Icewings. All the dragons stared at Morrowseer, whose vast black form seemed to fill the whole arena. His darkness sucked up all the light around him. He pointed at Starflight and addressed Scarlet.

"This dragonet is ours." _Just Starflight? Typical Nightwings…_

"Ours who?" Scarlet said. "We found him with some Talons of Peace revolutionaries. Are you telling me the Nightwings have finally chosen sides?"

"Are you allying yourselves with an underground peace movement instead of a real queen?" Burn chimed in with a snarl. Morrowseer glanced up at the sky, where a flight of black dragons was circling. _What are they doing..._

"No," he said in his deep rumbling voice. "I come only to claim this dragonet as ours. We will take him and go."

"Oh, _will_ you?" said Scarlet. "On whose authority? Would your mysterious queen like to appear and discuss the matter with me?" Morrowseer's eyes glittered dangerously.

"Do not anger the Nightwings, sky dragon. Give us our dragonet." Scarlet stamped her foot.

"No! I want to see him fight Icewings! It's my hatching day!" _Scarlet acting like a selfish brat of a dragonet? This is a new low, even for her. Jeebus…_ The black dragon's tail twitched, just the tiniest bit, and all at once several Nightwings came plummeting out of the sky. Without a word or a visible signal, the Nightwings fanned out across the circle of prisoners. The Skywing guards dodged out of the way, looking terrified. Each pair of Nightwings fell on an Icewing prisoner, talons slashing. Within moments, all the Icewings were dead. Their silvery corpses flopped across their cells. Bluish-red blood dripped slowly down the sides of the rock spires. _How dare they! Cowardly snakes, the lot of them! Only dare to attack whoever can't fight back! Especially that manipulative freak!_ Glaring at Morrowseer, Phantomtide was seen by the Nightwing, who gave the hybrid a scornful gaze. So much smoke was pouring out of Scarlet's nostrils that it was hard to see her eyes. Beside her, Burn's tail was lashing. She looked ready to jump down and attack Morrowseer herself. The large Nightwing smiled coldly. "There, we've taken care of your Icewing problem. Now we'll be going." He beat his wings once, lifting up into the air. During that, Phantomtide heard a small hissing sound, and moved his gaze to see black goo land on his wings bindings. Glory silently settled back onto her tree as the venom seemed to dry under the intensity of the sunlight. _Huh? She used her venom on the bindings...and it appears to be drying...like sand in a oven becomes glass! If that's the case, then the bindings should snap like glass...Glory is smarter than anyone could expect of the Rainwing tribe...interesting that the venom doesn't appear to work on metal...hmm…_ While Phantomtide formulated a possible plan, Morrowseer had carried Starflight away with him.

"Guards!" Scarlet roared, rousing Phantomtide from his thoughts. "I will have one thing go right today." She fumed. "Fetch my champion. And clean up that mess down there." She swept one wing toward the arena. Burn looked to angry to speak.

" _Are you figuring out her next idea?"_ Glory whispered, startling Phantomtide.

" _Possibly...I guess she prefers talking about her ideas when the chance arrives? You know, you've got a pretty handy set of skills. Congratulations."_

" _I'll take that as a compliment. And yes, she's that prideful. The next match is going to be Clay against her champion, that Skywing, Peril."_ The idea surprised him, but he hadn't ruled it out as a possibility Scarlet would do. Focusing on the situation, Phantomtide was greeted by a shocked stillness hung over the watching dragons all around the stadium. By the silence, he guessed it had been long since a similar occurrence had happened.

"As you all know," Scarlet said suddenly, her voice regal and commanding as if mystery dragons hadn't just swooped out of the sky to steal her toy. "yesterday my champion, Peril, offered to stand for the accused prisoner, Kestrel, in a Champion's Shield. She will now fight a dragon of my choosing, and if she wins, Kestrel goes free. If she loses - then I suppose I'll have to get a new champion." She paused, expecting a reaction from the crowd, but nothing happened. Scarlet frowned. "Oh, right. You think Peril _can't_ lose. Well, it so happens that we have a special guest here today - a dragon whose scales are impervious to fire. Isn't that... _thrilling?"_

"Wait, what?" Phantomtide got confused, until the guards seized Clay and dragged him into the tunnel. _So, this is her plan. Scarlet is forcing Peril to choose between the dragon she likes and her mother. And Clay has to choose between killing Peril...or death._

" _Either way, it's going down. We might have to act soon. You got anything to tell me, Glory? This might be the last chance to get anything out."_

" _Yeah. When I say 'Now!', you duck and I'll spray Burn and Scarlet, okay?"_ Phantomtide gave her a small nod, then proceeded to watch the fight.


	9. The escape

Phantomtide watched Clay as the Mudwing paced around the arena. While the crowd of dragons awaited Peril's arrival, he heard another small hiss as more of his chains were covered in venom, just shy of touching his scales. He dreaded to even twitch, the movement could prematurely shatter the already-dried venom-covered binds and the only possible chance of escape from Scarlet's talons would vanish. Scales scraped along the arena tunnel as Peril entered the arena, as Clay turned to face her. She stopped, and it seemed like every emotion in the world hit her face.

"There you go, Peril." Scarlet said. From behind her, Tsunami was dragged onto the balcony, wrapped in chains and glowing with anger. "That's the dragon you have to kill before I set your mother free. Have fun!" Peril slid toward Clay, who fled to the opposite wall. She hesitated, then put on a burst of speed and chased after him. When she was just a heartbeat away, Clay lunged forward and body-slammed her to the ground, causing the crowd to roar with surprise and delight. She lay there gasping as he got up and ran to the other side of the arena again. _Guess she isn't used to getting hit by other dragons, much less even touched._ Clay turned with his back to the wall and crouched, waiting for Peril to get up. Slowly she rolled to her feet and paced toward him. This time she stopped a short distance away. A conversation started between the two, but barely anyone could hear. After a few moments, Peril snarled suddenly and leapt at Clay's head, and he shoved himself upward, throwing her over him and into the wall. He was across the arena again by the time she was able to crawl to her feet. Exchanging a few words, Peril snaps her wing open and she leaped up, then dove at him at him with her claws outstretched. Clay snatched a talonful of sand and threw it in her eyes. She shrieked and blundered sideways in the air. He leaped to grab her shoulders and flung her to the ground. He rolled her onto her back and sat on her, looking down into her face. The conversation continued on for a few minutes, until Scarlet interrupted them.

"Hurry up and do it, then." She called from her balcony. "You have her at your mercy. Use your venom! That was thrilling, and I didn't even get to see it the first time!" Clay and Peril stared at each other for a moment.

" _Now!"_ Glory suddenly reared up in a blaze of sunflower gold and cobalt blue. She snapped her thin chain like a reed and launched herself off the marble tree. Reacting quickly, Phantomtide broke his bindings and chains easily, then bolted out of the way. When he was out of the way, Glory already had her mouth wide open, hinged like a snake's. With a hiss, a jet of black liquid shot out of her two longest fangs. Burn shoved Scarlet in front of her and shot into the sky. Glory's venom hit Scarlet on the side of her face. The Skywing Queen began to scream, and the stadium erupted in pandemonium. All the dragons tried to take to the Sky at once, crashing into one another and clawing viciously to get away from Glory and the screaming queen. The guards on the balcony had all scattered after Burn, leaving Glory and Phantomtide with the chained Tsunami. Clay landed next to them, while Scarlet was beating her own head with her wings and staggering toward the edge.

"Glory!" Clay cried. "You're awake!"

"Of course I am!" she flared, tugging on Tsunami's chains with Phantomtide. "You couldn't tell I was faking? I was waiting for the right moment to do something with our new friend. Did you seriously think I was asleep the whole time?"

"Uh -"

"You looked pretty asleep." Tsunami said.

"Well, that's great." Glory said. "For the first time in my life, I pretend to be as lazy as everyone thinks Rainwings are, and you actually believe it. I'm glad my friends have so much faith in me."

"Hey, you never told us you could do _that_." Clay said, pointing to her venom-spitting teeth. Beyond them, Scarlet had crashed into her throne and screamed even louder. Her gold chain mail was starting to melt into her scales.

"I never could before. Are you going to help us with this?" Clay grabbed the marble tree and tried to leverage it under Tsunami's chains.

"So how _did_ you do that?"

"Oh, well, there's a logical scientific explanation and _seriously, right now you want to have this conversation?"_

"You scared off Burn, but she won't be fine for long." Tsunami pointed out.

"With her soldiers around her." Phantomtide added in. Clay gave the sky a worried look.

"Peril!" He shouted. "Get over here!"

"No! Not her! Keep her away from me!"

"We need her help." Clay insisted as Peril landed beside him. "Their chains and bindings." he said to Peril. She hesitated. "Please," he added. "If we're really friends."

"All right." she said, glancing at Scarlet. She touched the chains around Tsunami, and they broke apart, collapsing with great clanking sounds to the balcony floor. Clay held his friends' wings bindings away from their scales, and Peril burned right through them.

"Now we get Sunny." he said, leaping into the sky. Phantomtide pondered on a course of action, but ended up following the dragonets. Peril reached a cage with a unusually small Sandwing inside, which he assumed was the Sunny they were looking for. Phantomtide kept a lookout as they freed their friend from the cage.

"Wait, where's Starflight? And who's he?" Sunny asked, looking around, then directly at Phantomtide.

"We lost him." Glory said.

" _What?"_

"Stop that." Tsunami said, hitting Glory with her tail. "Glory means Morrowseer came and took him away. He's fine. Better than us, especially once dragons stop panicking and start looking for us. Let's head for the river." She banked around the cliff, scattering clumps of rusty blood-red sand from her wings.

"But - he just left? Without us?"

"He didn't have a choice. Morrowseer wasn't leaving without Starflight." Phantomtide replied in Clay's steed, then beckoned from them to hurry.

"Clay, wait." Peril said. Her copper wings shivered, and she clenched her talons as if she were about to split in two. "My mother. If Queen Scarlet isn't dead, the first thing she'll do is kill her."

"She's right." Clay said as Tsunami and Glory came winging back to see why they hadn't moved. "Tsunami, we have to get Kestrel out."

"Why?" Tsunami challenged. "What do we care? Kestrel was awful to us."

"We care anyway." Sunny said softly. "We can't help it. Even you."

"I don't." Glory stated. "She was going to kill me, remember?"

"She didn't raise us to care about her." Tsunami argued. "Kestrel was just keeping us alive, and if that's what she wants, the best thing we can do is run away right now."

"I'd like to be something more than alive." Clay said fiercely. "I'd like to be the kind of dragon she doesn't think I am - the kind they write prophecies about. That dragon would rescue her no matter how awful she is." Tsunami lashed her tail, nearly knocking Glory sideways. Even though she was covered in blood, get blue scales shone through in the sunlight Luke buried sapphires. She glared at Peril for a long moment.

"Fine." She growled at last.

"Not me." Glory said. "Do what you like, but I'm not a big mushy ball of forgiveness like you are, Clay." She met his gaze calmly, but her scales were rolling red and black like embers inside thunderclouds.

"Then take Sunny, go to the cave at the bottom of the waterfall, and wait for us. You, go with them. I'll feel safer if you're with them, regardless of my personal thoughts about you." Tsunami said to Glory, then directed the rest to Phantomtide. He paused for a second.

"...Yeah. I'll keep them out of trouble."

"Can't I help?" Sunny asked. "I think I could -"

"Yes, by not getting yourself killed." Glory said. She tipped her wings at Sunny, and flashed over the edge of the cliff. Sunny hesitated, then squeezed Clay's talons and followed Glory alongside Phantomtide. In a splash of azure blue and pale gold among crimsons and orange, the small Sandwing dragonet and the hybrid flew through the crowd of panicking dragons, following a very obvious flying rainbow. Leaving the palace and the chaos in there behind, the three angled toward a dark gap near the bottom of a waterfall. Glory ducked in, then the anxious Sunny. Phantomtide took a quick look behind them to catch glimpse of any pursuers, but the clouds were void of any other dragons. Satisfied that they were safe, Phantomtide followed the two in. Inside, Sunny was fidgeting nervously while Glory sat by the entrance, watching her friend. As he came in, the Rainwing barely have Phantomtide as glance.

"You know, I don't think I caught your name when we planning an escape."

"Oh, right. It's Phantomtide...have to say, talking without having to whispered is much better. Not so restricted now."

"Do you think they'll be okay?" Sunny asked, worried about the others.

"Have faith in your friends. They survived this long, haven't they?" Phantomtide tried to reassure her. She gave him a beaming smile, but immediately went back to fidgeting. After a few minutes, Phantomtide thought he could hear wingbeats. Before he or Glory could react, Sunny went to the opening and anxiously peeked out. Without a word, she bolted outside, with Glory and Phantomtide following after her quickly.

"Kestrel!' Sunny cried. "You're all right." Phantomtide saw the large Skywing with Clay, Peril, and Tsunami which Sunny called out to.

"No thanks to you five." Kestrel growled, lashing her tail. "You wanted so badly to be free. Now do you see why we had to protect you?" One of her wings snagged on a tree branch and she wrestled it loose, growling.

"You're welcome." Tsunami snapped back. "We could have left you in the Sky Kingdom. I would have." Clay threw himself to the ground and rolled in the mud below their feet.

"Good grief, Clay, yucky." Glory said. She edged toward the nearby lake and spread her wings to catch the sunlight.

"Careful." Tsunami reached to pull her back. "If they're looking for us, they'll definitely spot a bright purple dragon from the air." Glory flared her ruff at Tsunami.

"I am not _bright purple._ Queen Scarlet called this my violet mood, thank you very much."

"Oh, sorry." Tsunami said. "I meant to say they'll definitely spot a _moody violet_ dragon from the air."

"You are the epitome of hilarious. Anyway, I can take care of that." Her wings scales shimmered as if they were drawing in the sunlight, and then the purple color started to break up like water being poured into paint. Soon she was the color of the muddy ground below her. "Happy?" she asked Tsunami.

"I want to know what my cool power is." Tsunami muttered. "You've got camouflage scales and venom-spitting teeth. Clay is immune to fire. Starflight apparently has big dragons waiting in the sky to save him whenever things get scary. What do I get?"

"Clay is immune to fire?" Sunny asked. "What? And did you say venom-spitting teeth?"

"Yeah." Clay answered. "I'm afraid you'll have to be nicer to Glory from now on, Sunny." She flapped her wings in outrage.

"I'm always nice to - oh, you're teasing me." she said as he choked with laughter. She smushed a giant talonful of mud into his face. Clay ducked away. Phantomtide grew slightly jealous of the dragonets, seeing how they were at ease with each other. Living by himself for longer than anyone could guess tended to be extremely boring, but friends like the dragonets was something rarely seen by the hybrid.

"See, we can take care of ourselves." Tsunami said to Kestrel. "You didn't even know what Clay and Glory could do. You didn't think we were good for anything, but it was your own fault for keeping us underground and treating us like eggs."

"Oh, we did everything wrong." Kestrel said scathingly. "Go ahead and blame us, but we did as the Talons of Peace asked. You'd probably be all dead if we hadn't." Tsunami lifted her chin.

"We're not going back to the Talons of Peace." she said.

"We're not?" Sunny squeaked. Glory gave her a scornful look.

"Oh?" Kestrel said. She bent her head to avoid the branches and gave Tsunami a Sharp orange glare. "What is your magnificent plan, if I may ask?"

"We're going to find out homes," Tsunami said. "And our parents. We're going to see this war firsthand, instead of reading about it in scrolls. And then we'll figure out for ourselves _if_ we're going to do anything about it."

"But, Tsunami," Sunny whispered, tugging on her wing. "The prophecy! We have to!'

"Shh." Clay said. He drew her back, away from the wrathful look on Kestrel's face. There was a pause as Kestrel and Tsunami glared at each other. Smoke puffed from Kestrel's nose, drifting away on the air.

"Fine." Kestrel snorted unexpectedly. "What do I care? I'm done with you. I've done everything that was asked of me, and all I have to show for it is a pack of ungrateful lizards. Go find your precious families. I don't care what happens to you."

"Oh, Kestrel." Sunny said, climbing over and hugging Kestrel's leg. "You don't mean that. You know we appreciate everything you did for us." Phantomtide saw Glory and Tsunami rolling their eyes at each other.

"You're on your own now." Kestrel said. She pried Sunny off and stepped back toward the lake. "And good riddance. Peril, are you coming?" Peril hesitated.

"I thought you were coming with us." Clay said. Peril's eyes brightened.

"Over my charred, dead body." Tsunami growled, whacking Clay with one of her wings.

"Why not?" Glory said, her eyes on a passing butterfly. "Maybe Peril's the missing dragonet you all need for the prophecy…your 'wings of sky'." As she said that, Phantomtide immediately thought of the Skywing dragonet, who was still alive and well, being raised by a long-time friend Phantomtide met. _Opal...and her foster parent, my friend Metalhide...I should go visit them..._ While the others continued talking, Phantomtide walked to the nearby river, thirsty after a while of no water. While taking a short drink, he noticed the reflection of a Mudwing on the water surface. He looked up to see a familiar face, recognizing the other dragon instantly. It was Pine, the Mudwing who had taken him in when he was on death's door and grew to like him. She mouthed, 'Meet me later, love, at home.' With that, she vanished into the trees.

"Things are moving fast again, but as usual, my luck runs dry. I have to choose between Pine...and them." He looked back in the direction of the dragonets. After a brief moment, he decided to see Pine, then hopefully catch up to the dragonets.


	10. May we meet again

Phantomtide returned to the others to find Kestrel had left, only the dragonets and Peril were the only ones still there.

"Some reunion." Peril said, glancing at the blackened earth below her.

"You can still come with us." Clay offered. "Even if you're not in the prophecy."

'No." she said slowly. "I don't think...I don't think I deserve to." He tilted his head at her.

"What does that mean?"

"It's like you said. You're the kinds of dragonets they write prophecies about. You're heroes and saviors and I'm - well, I'm the opposite of that. I'm the bad guy."

"I'm not a hero. You're the one who got us out of the Sky Kingdom."

"Only because of you." She shook her head. "I thought I was born a killer, but it turns out I wasn't. Queen Scarlet made me that way...or I let myself become that way. It's like I chose it without knowing I chose it. But you were born that way." Clay winced. "You knew what you were like, and you chose to be something else. I guess I feel like I can't be one of you unless I can do that, too." She blinked, her blue-fire eyes taking in each of the dragonets, then Phantomtide. "I'm going back to the Sky Kingdom. That's where I belong, and I need to know if Queen Scarlet is dead."

"Don't you want to leave?" Clay asked. "Don't you want to see the world outside the Sky Kingdom?" Peril stirred the ash below her talons.

"Not until I feel like the world can be safe from me."

"Can we speed up the touching good-bye? Because we've got company." Tsunami grimly nodded at the top of the cliff. Two flights of dragons were lifting off in graceful spiral formations. One group gleamed red and gold; the other shimmered with pale white heat. The unmistakable shape of Burn soared over then both. After a moment, they split apart, and dragons fanned out in every direction. Their wingbeats filled the sky. Their long necks whipped from side to side as they searched. The hunt for the escaped dragonets had begun.

"What do we do?" Sunny asked in a hushed voice.

"We should get to the delta." Tsunami said. "We can find Clay's family there. Maybe they'll help protect us."

"And then we'll be at the sea," Sunny said. "so we can find yours too. And maybe Starflight will find us there? Do you think he's looking for us?"

"Doubtful." said Glory. Sunny's face fell. "He's with his wonderful Nightwings now. And I hate to point this out, but there are about two hundred dragons overhead who actually are looking for us. The minute we stroll out from these trees, they'll be on us like fur on a squirrel."

'Well, I have an idea," Clay said hesitantly. "But you're not all going to like it."

"Oh, good." Glory said. "My favorite kind of plan."

"We swim to the delta." Clay pointed at the river. Glory made a face. Her claws rippled from brown to pale blue and back again.

"I'm not a very good swimmer." Sunny said anxiously. "But I guess I could try."

"They'll see us from the air." Tsunami pointed out.

"Not Glory." Clay said. "She can camouflage herself in the river. And if she rides on your back, she'll hide you too " Glory and Tsunami looked less than thrilled at that suggestion. "Then we roll Sunny in mud and put her on my back." Clay went on. "I'll stick to the shallows, and from the sky we should look like part of the riverbed."

"I'll wait until you're gone and then fly off in a different direction. Maybe I can lead then away for a while. It's not like they can touch me or do anything to me, once you're safe." She glanced at Clay and then away again.

"And I'm overdue in meeting someone. We split ways from here...but I'll rejoin you five at some point."

"All right." Tsunami said. "It's our best shot. Let's do it, then, and quickly." As the dragonets prepared to go, Phantomtide slipped away, moving silently through the trees and brush. Now then, what's so important that Pine has to drag me away from the dragonets of destiny? Possibly something came up that can't be ignored...who knows with her? She's always mysterious and all over the place. So, what's it this time?" After he got a safe distance from the searching dragons, he took into the air as soon as it started getting dark. After reaching the meeting place near Jade Mountain, he laid down and fell asleep.

Someone shook his shoulder, and he woke with a start. Pine and another dragon, a Nightwing in bronze armor he knew as Midnight, were standing over him. The Mudwing motioned with her head silently, then she and Midnight exited the large cavern. Phantomtide got up, stretched and followed his friends. As he went outside, Midnight remained by the entrance. Looking around, he saw Pine standing on a small hill directly ahead. He joined her on it, then noticed a familiar Skywing follow a lone Nightwing into a tunnel. He immediately recognised the rosy pink sky dragon as Opal, the foster daughter of Metalhide, who was the brother of Midnight. After watching for a few seconds, Midnight came up, then nodded for them to follow, as he went down and into the tunnel himself. Pine and Phantomtide followed silently, both unaware of what was coming.


	11. Return to the Sea

Phantomtide took off as soon as he left the gaping entrance, hurriedly checking his position and the direction of the Seawing kingdom from the cave. If the dragonets stuck to their original plan, that's where they were most likely headed. Last time he had been there, it wasn't exactly the most pleasant of times, as he was one of the last dragons to see Gill before the Seawing was captured by the Skywings, he was immediately suspected of being a spy. Despite initial problems, he managed to convince Queen Coral that he held no allegiance to any of the alliances, Burn's especially. This bought some leniency from the Seawing Queen and her subjects, but she was unwilling to let him leave easily, and so he was forced to promise Queen Coral that he would search for the missing princess, who turned out to be Tsunami. Phantomtide put on a burst of speed.How will Coral react when I actually do show up with her long-lost daughter? He smiled. Few things could truly please the Seawing Queen, and perhaps that would be entertaining to witness, at least, to an extent. The sea came into viewing as he flew closer to the border of the Seawing kingdom. A sense of longing and joy spread over him, as the water was where he truly enjoyed being. But his thoughts about the crystal clear sea was halted, as he saw a cluster of red specks like spattered blood in the sky, winging down from the mountains in the northwest. Skywings, most likely looking for the dragonets. Despite his concerns, Phantomtide knew if he was seen, he would instantly be recognized. After all, how many other Nightwing-Seawing hybrids existed in Pyrrhia? He dove downwards, hoping that the Skywings didn't notice him, even at this distance. Banking around several trees and landing in a clearing, Phantomtide didn't stay still. Moving again, he pushed through the foliage to escape any view, especially if the pursuers split up to search the area. After a few silent moments, the loud wingbeats came as the Skywing patrol moved past, but a stationary wingbeat just ahead signaled that one was lagging behind.

"Why would-the dragonets!" Phantomtide put on a second burst of speed, bursting from the trees to emerge near a beach. Directly ahead was a Skywing, seemingly staring at other trees near the shore. A curl of smoke rose from the Skywing's nose, and he opened his mouth. Whatever it was, he might have seen the dragonets, and a single shout could bring the other Skywings back. Phantomtide bolted straight for the orange dragon, as Tsunami burst out of the water below in a great leap, smashing her tail behind her for momentum. The Seawing rammed right into the Skywing's underbelly, making him cough out a puff of fiery smoke and clutch his midsection, having gotten his breath knocked out of him. Tsunami ducked around him, slammed her tail into his head, and landed on his back as hard as she possibly could. The Skywing was nearly forced to fall into the water, but he fought back into the air. Tsunami kicked at his wings with her claws and slide back towards his tail, trying to draft him down with her weight. The orange dragon snarled and twisted, shooting a blast of flames out of his snout, which barely missed her. Tsunami yanked him down towards the water, but his massive wings beat harder and harder. In a split second, Tsunami sank her teeth into the vulnerable spot on his tail, making him convulse with pain, nearly throwing her off, then blasted fire at her again. Phantomtide waited long enough. He bolted forward at the attacking Skywing, just as Clay did the same. The three's combined strength proved too much for the Skywing, as they dragged him down into the ocean. He fought wildly the whole way, but between Clay's fire-resistant scales and the disadvantage he would have underwater, the attempt was futile. As soon as they hit the water, Tsunami swam to the Skywing's head and held it below the surface until he stopped thrashing. The three let go, allowing the Skywing to slowly drift towards the seafloor. Tsunami and Clay each grabbed a wing belonging to the dragon and dragged him up onto the beach, with Phantomtide helping move the Skywing as they did. When they reached the beach, Phantomtide scanned the sky for the rest of the patrol, but they had vanished from sight. Tsunami collapsed onto the sand besides the Skywing and Phantomtide.

"What is wrong with you?" A familiar voice snapped. Glory materialized from the sandy background, turning her scales a darker shade of brown. Phantomtide nearly jumped, as he hadn't known the Rainwing was close by. She glared at Tsunami. "Why did you do that?"

"Oh, you're welcome. Just saving your life, as usual."

"By attacking random dragons?" Glory cried. "In another moment they would have been gone! And what are you doing?" She jabbed Clay in the side with one of her wings.

"Uh," Clay mumbled. "Fixing him." He kept thumping the Skywing's chest.

"What?" Glory yelped. "You can't let him live!" She tried to grab one of Clay's forearms, but Tsunami shoved her away.

"We don't have to kill him. We'll tie him up and leave him here."

"Great. How about a trail of cow parts, too? And a map of where we're going? Or perhaps we could set this part of the forest on fire, just to make sure everyone knows how to find us. Would you like me to spell out 'DRAGONETS WUZ HERE' in giant rocks?"

"Fine! Here he is. You kill him." Glory looked down at the unconscious dragon and hesitated.

"I don't kill dragons who can't fight back." She finally said.

"Why not? Just splat some venom on his face and melt him, if it's that easy for you." Glory sank her claws into the sand, scowling. Bubbles of dark purple began spreading across her scales.

"Alright, that's enough! Stop fighting, both of you!" Phantomtide growled at the Rainwing and Seawing, getting a stare from both, but no more words were thrown. Sunny and Starflight landed on the beach beside them, the Sandwing giving the Skywing a horrified look.

"Is he all right?" She asked Clay.

"Try this." Starflight offered, moving over to help. Clay shifted aside, and they rolled the dragon onto his stomach.

"Why did you attack him?" Sunny blurted at Tsunami, her stingless tail flicking back and forth anxiously.

"To save you!"

"But he wasn't doing anything," Sunny protested. "He was just flying by." The other four dragonets looked at Tsunami, who arched her neck indignantly, but Phantomtide replied first.

"Not from where I was. He was looking right at the trees, where you two hid, correct?" Phantomtide interjected, looking to Starflight, then at Sunny.

"I thought the same thing. He was about to call out to the others. I saw him open his mouth!"

"So did I. I'm pretty sure he was yawning."

"Pretty sure?" Would you risk our lives on 'pretty sure'?"

"Can you guys please not fight about what may, or may not, have been? We've got more pressing things to worry about?" Phantomtide stated in attempt to break up the argument, and to prove his point, the Skywing suddenly coughed, and seawater flooded out of his snout. Clay ruffled his wings with a pleased expression.

"Oh, wonderful. Our enemy will survive. Well done. We have to get out of here. " Glory said as she took a step back and glanced at the sky where the other soldiers had disappeared. "So what do we do with him now, O Great Leader?"

"There's a tree," Starflight said, jumping to his feet. "In the forest."

"No way, a tree in the forest?"

"Being sarcastic is not helping!" Tsunami snapped at Glory.

"I mean, a fallen tree. We can use it. Glory, and you, guard him; Clay and Tsunami, come on, quick." Clay charged up the beach after Starflight, but Tsunami paused for a moment.

"Go on, hurry." Sunny nudged the Seawing with one wing.

By the time they got back with the tree, the soldier's eyes were blinking awake. He coughed twice, lifting his head to peer groggily at the dragonets and Phantomtide.

"So how does the tree help?" Tsunami asked.

"We put it on top of him." Starflight explained. "So he'll be trapped in place, at least long enough for us to get away." Phantomtide helped Clay and Tsunami wrestle the tree over until it lay heavily across the orange dragon's back and wings. The Skywing tried to push himself up, but the ree kept him pinned to the sand.

"What if he's stuck here forever?" Sunny worried. She reached over and brushed some sand off the Skywing's snout. He snorted a puff of smoke, and Clay pulled her back. "Maybe we should just let him go."

"We can't do that."

"I wish you hadn't attacked him." Sunny ducked her head down.

"Me too." said Glory

"It wasn't the smartest move." Starfight agreed. Tsunami's gills flares and she spread her wings, but she was interrupted before she said anything.

"Maybe not the smartest choice, but it may have been the right choice." Tsunami gave him a at-least-I-have-your-support look, then looked to Clay, who merely shrugged as if he wasn't sure.

"Don't worry, Sunny." Clay said, patting the little Sandwing's head. "His friends will come looking for him eventually."

"Eventually or soon. So like I said, let's seriously get out of here."

"Wait," The Skywing rasped. His voice was hoarse and deep. He wriggled, lashing his tail across the sand. "Don't leave me like this." Starflight stepped into his line of sight and gazed down at him.

"Remember we could have killed you. Remember that the dragonets of destiny were merciful. We want peace, not more death. We have come to save Pyrrhia."

"Oh, good grief." Tsunami said as Glory rolled her eyes while Phantomtide sighed, then chuckled. "No more hanging out with Nightwings for you, present company excluded."

"I thought it sounded nice." Sunny said, making Starflight shoot her a grateful look.

"Sunny, don't encourage him."

Starflight carefully draped a few large leaves over the dragon's head, so he couldn't see where they went. He pointed toward the forest and mouthed, "Just to be safe." The six dragons lifted into the sky.

(Note from the Author: I know it's been a long while since I last updated Phantom of a Chance, but at long last, here's the next chapter. The Dragonets and Phantomtide are reunited, and despite disagreements, head off together as a group again. Although Starflight still has some dislike for the hybrid. Stay tuned for more chapters, about next Friday-ish.)


	12. Bay of a Thousand Scales

After they took a long detour inland to convince the Skywing they'd gone in the opposite direction, they circled around south and flew out to sea. They managed to make it to a small rocky island shortly after night fell, but according to Starflight they were still a long way from the Bay of a Thousand Scales. He'd calculated the distance and their speed with a long lecture in store, which Phantomtide avoided by leaving before the Nightwing started.

It was four mornings later that the six were finally on an island that was officially part of the Bay of a Thousand Scales. While the dragonets voted to pack themselves into a cavern halfway up a tall sea cliff, Phantomtide stayed on the sand below, finding some shade in a small patch of foliage. He spent part of his time sleeping, but being around water had an energizing effect on him. He immediately got up and stretched, then headed to the edge of the water. Pausing next to the sea, he looked to where the dragonets were in. At that moment, he saw Tsunami fly out of the cave opening, plummet down the cliff, then snapping her wings open at the last moment, and proceeded to sail on top the water, diving in a second later. Phantomtide silently watched her take off, then curled up on the sand and stirred the water with one claw while thinking about everything that happened recently. He remained lost in his thoughts until a quick movement overhead got his attention. Tsunami was returning at full speed, with another Seawing right behind her. Phantomtide immediately sprung onto his feet, unsure of what was actually happening. As soon as Tsunami neared the strip of white sandy strip, then swung around to face the other Seawing. Phantomtide took into the air and almost crashed straight into Clay.

"Do you know what this is about?"

"No more than you do, I'm afraid…" They watched Tsunami and the other Seawing talk, but the words were thrown away by the wind, leaving them clueless on what was going on. After a few long moments, the Seawing whipped his tail to knock Tsunami aside, then charged right at Clay. As soon as he got close, Phantomtide moved to stop the Seawing, but was battered aside with the dragon's tail. By the time he recovered, the Seawing was grappling with Clay, and started to drag the Mudwing down to the ocean. Phantomtide and Tsunami both launched themselves at the Seawing.

"Clay!" Sunny shrieked, bursting out of the cliffside cave. Tsunami got there first, smacking the Seawing over the head with her tail, seized his wing in her talons, and yanked him away from Clay when he turned around in surprise. He tried to spin around Tsunami to get back on Clay, but she blocked him with her wings and lashed at his snout. He flinched back, allowing Clay to scramble out of reach and for Phantomtide to face the Seawing alongside Tsunami.

"What are you doing?" The Seawing yelled at Tsunami. "I'm saving you from that Mudwing!"

"Well, don't!" Tsunami yelled back. "He's my friend!'

"But -" Sunny slammed into the back of the Seawing, landing between his wings and wrapping her talons around his neck.

"Leave him alone!" she panted. The Seawing looked more astonished than alarmed. He wriggled his shoulders and twisted his neck, trying to see what was on his back. Sunny kicked his wing, making him yelp.

"That's my other friend. Sunny, try not to hurt him too badly. We need his help."

"I hardly think this gnat is going to hurt me." The Seawing growled, then Sunny kicked his wing again.

"Promise me you won't attack Clay." His eyes went to the Mudwing circling just above then, rubbing his head anxiously.

"The Mudwings are our enemies." the Seawing snarled at Tsunami. "If you don't know that, then you'd better leave the Bay of a Thousand Scales before Queen Coral's army finds you and does what they always do to traitors."

"I'm not a traitor, and Clay is not your enemy. You'd better learn some respect, squid-brain. We're the dragonets of destiny."


	13. Riptide and Shark

"Riptide," Sunny said again. "That's a funny name."

"I like it. Fierce and scary, like mine." Tsunami said as Riptide was pacing the beach, lashing his tail in a long swooshing trail through the sand. His sky-blue scales glinted metallically in the morning light. Claw-mark scars were visible along his pale underbelly, and a seemingly old bite mark on his tail. Phantomtide assumed that Riptide was about his own age, as the male Seawing looked a couple of years older than Tsunami.

"All right, so the Talons of Peace are real." Riptide finally said.

"Unfortunately…" Glory muttered. Riptide glanced at her, perched on a large rock she had found, spreading her wings open to the sun, and her scales were shimmering silver and rose.

"I thought everyone knew about the Talons." Sunny said.

"Just rumors and whispers. None of the tribe queens would be pleased to find a member of the peace movement in their midst. Conspiring with other tribes? Stealing eggs?" Riptide shook his head. "Queen Coral would kill any dragon she found working with the Talons." He gave Tsunami a searching look.

Clay was sitting nearby with his tail in the water. He had muddy sand packed over the spot where Riptide had clawed him. Sunny sat next to him, on the opposite side of Clay from Phantomtide, who was stirring the water with one claw while listening to the conversation. The Sandwing gave Riptide fierce looks whenever he paced too close to Clay.

"And you're _the_ dragonets of destiny. For real...Well, except for him." Riptide stopped and quickly glanced at Phantomtide. "The ones in the prophecy. That's real." He inhaled deeply, and blew out again. "And you're here. In Seawing territory. Just like -" He glanced at Tsunami again, then went back to pacing.

"Listen, Riptide. We're just trying to find a safe place for my friends to go." Phantomtide spoke up, turning his head to look at the pacing Seawing.

"Yeah. The Talons of Peace treated us, the dragonets, terribly. I figured the Seawings would welcome and protect us."

"I suppose," Riptide said in an not very reassuring way. "So you were raised in a cave?" He stopped in front of Tsunami. 'With no ocean? Never? You never went into the ocean?"

"Not until we escaped."

"But that's _awful,_ "

" _Thank_ you," Tsunami said, flaring her wings. "I know it was. I've always said our life was miserable, but these dragons keep arguing with me."

"Not me." Glory stated.

"I can't believe the Talons did that to you." Riptide said as he clawed the sand.

"Tell me about it." Tsunami said. "They really are the worst."

"Even Webs - Webs didn't take you to the ocean?" Riptide asked.

"What's with your interest about Webs?" Phantomtide asked, getting slightly curious about the questions Riptide was firing rapidly at Tsunami. The Seawing ducked his head and frowned at his talons.

"He's pretty infamous in the tribe. We all know he deserted during a battle, and later came back and stole one of the queen's eggs. At least, Queen Coral was sure it was him. But nobody knew if he stole it for the Talons of Peace or for his own reasons. We're not really supposed to talk about the Talons of Peace rumors."

"Doesn't anyone think he might have stolen the egg to be part of the prophecy." Starflight asked, to which Riptide nodded.

"Some of us did. But again, nobody talked about it. Queen Blister doesn't like hearing about the prophecy, so that's also a forbidden topic." This statement made Tsunami wrinkle her snout.

"Blister gets to decide what Seawings can talk about?" Tsunami looked to the only other dragon she could for confirmation, Phantomtide.

"Unfortunately, yes. Blister holds some sway over Queen Coral. Not entirely, though." The hybrid answered. "Otherwise I would be in the Seawing dungeon, or part of the army."

Riptide shifted uncomfortably and picked up a large conch shell, proceeding to twist it between his talons.

"You'll want to call her _Queen_ Blister when you meet her."

" _Blister_ is not any Queen, of Seawing or Sandwing." Phantomtide growled out.

'And not until we decide she _should_ be Queen," Tsunami said stoutly. "That's up to us, the dragonets, remember?"

It looked for a moment like Riptide was trying not to smile.

"Well," Starflight stammered. "she is a pretty good - I mean, she's the smart one - I think we'll probably -" Both Phantomtide and Tsunami tilted their heads at the Nightwing. He snapped his mouth shut at their confused looks and went back to picking sand out of his scales.

"Did you know Webs?" Clay asked Riptide. The Seawing dropped his gaze.

"Not really. He ran away during a battle when I was only two years old. But I've been hearing about his treachery my whole life." He sighed. "I really can't believe he never took you to the ocean in all that time."

"It's true. _And_ he never taught me Aquatic. I wish I had all the Talons of Peace here so I could _bite_ them."

"To be fair, the Talons were just keeping us safe," Sunny interjected. "They needed us to survive to fulfill the prophecy." Tsunami snorted, and Sunny gave her an injured look.

"But the prophecy," Riptide said as he pointed at Glory. "It calls for a Skywing. She's not a Skywing."

"It's a bit complicated." Tsunami said as a hint of sea green rippled across Glory's scales. "Anyways, I'm not sure we really care about the prophecy. But we do care about finding the families we were stolen from."

"I care about the prophecy!" Sunny protested. She poked Clay's side and he nodded agreeably. Starflight cleared his throat to speak, but Tsunami interrupted him.

"Only a few days ago, I found out I was stolen from the Royal Hatchery." Tsunami said. "So . . . so I thought maybe my parents were looking for me. Like in _The Missing Princess_? Do you know that scroll?"

"I do. It's required reading in school."

"School," Starflight said in a wistful tone.

"Required reading?" Tsunami echoed.

"But I can't take you to the palace," Riptide said firmly. "Not with him along." He jerked his head at Clay.

"Weren't you listening?" Tsunami said, exasperated. "He's not a regular Mudwing. He's certainly not allied with Burn or the Skywings. You can trust him."

"Perhaps you should stay here," Riptide suggested. "and I'll bring Queen Coral back to you." He glanced across the water at the other island.

"Nope. We're all coming with you."

"I'm in enough trouble with Queen Coral," Riptide protested. "That's why I'm stuck patrolling all the way out here. If I bring a Mudwing back to the palace, I might as well pull out my own teeth."

"We!" Sunny cried. "That's not a real punishment, is it?"

"Think of it this way," Tsunami said quickly. "What happens if Queen Coral finds out you met her missing daughter and _didn't_ bring her back to the palace?" Riptide squirmed and wrinkled his snout.

"Can't I bring you with him," Riptide jerks his head to Phantomtide. "and leave the others?" He asked. "At least until Queen Coral gives her permission?"

"No." Tsunami said stoutly. "We all go together. She'll understand when she realizes we're the dragonets of destiny."

"All right," Riptide sighed. "But he has to go blindfolded." He looked at Glory, Sunny, and Starflight while rubbing his chin. "It'd be better if they could go blindfolded as well."

"What am _I_ going to do?" Glory asked. "Round up some scary Rainwings to come sleep on your roof? I thought no one was afraid of my tribe."

"We're not," Riptide objected. "Afraid of Rainwings. Pffft. What a thing to say." More streaks of pale green appeared along Glory's scales and then faded away.

"Wonderful." She said. "So no blindfold for me, then." Glory tossed her head and turned back to the ocean. Riptide looked doubtfully at Starflight and Sunny.

"The Nightwings know everything," Starflight said loftily. "It's no use trying to keep secrets from them. I mean, us. I could just use my powers to figure out where your palace." Tsunami rolled her eyes.

"Please don't argue with him," She said to Riptide. "Once he starts yammering on about how amazing Nightwings are, we'll never get him to shut up." Starflight ruffled his wings in outrage. Riptide muttered something under his breath and started poking around in the shallow water below the rocks.

"You can blindfold me," Sunny offered. "I don't mind."

"If you do that, she can ride on my back." Tsunami suggested.

"Or my back." Starflight jumped in quickly, causing Tsunami to frown at him.

"You think you're strong?" She challenged him.

"Sure he is," Sunny said. "I'll ride with him, and you can lead Clay with Phantomtide." Riptide came stomping back with several long strands of thick black seaweed. Sunny immediately looked like she was regretting his offer. But she let the big Seawing wrap the seaweed tightly around her head, covering her closed eyes.

"Ew," She said, shivering. "It's all wet and slimy."

"I like wet and slimy." Clay said, ducking his head to make it easier for Riptide to blindfold him.

"That's weird, Clay." said Glory

"And wrong on so many levels." Phantomtide chimed in. When Riptide was done plastering seaweed to Clay's broad head, it looked like a octopus was trying to eat the Mudwing's brain. Tsunami then helped Sunny climb awkwardly onto Starflight's back, balancing in the narrow space between his wings.

"If you can't handle it, tell me and I'll take her." Tsunami said to Starflight, who nodded while breathing heavily. She then turned to Clay, on the opposite side of Phantomtide, and brushed the Mudwing's wing tip with hers.

"Can you feel that?" She asked. "If I do that in the air, can you stay with me?"

"I think so." Clay said doubtfully.

"That's why I'll be on your other side. We'll be able to steer you together." Phantomtide nudged Clay's other wing.

"And I'll fly besides you, Phantom, so that you don't slack off." Glory said, hopping down from her rock. Clay shook his head a little and a loose strap of seaweed went _glop flop_ against his neck.

"This is really strange. It's as dark as the underground river. Only with breathing, so, better. I'm in favor of breathing. Definitely better than not breathing."

"Just don't go too fast. And listen to me." Tsunami ordered.

"To _us_." Glory chimed in. "And we promise not to drown you." She gave Tsunami an arch look, prompting a returned glare from the Seawing.

"All right, let's go." She said to Riptide. The sky-blue Seawing waved his talons in front of Clay's face to test for a reaction. After that, he finally sprang into the sky with the dragonets and Phantomtide close behind him. Green-and-white islands glowed like jewels below them as they flew over the bay. When they swooped down close to the sea after a few moments, pearlescent pink dolphins were seen by everyone except Clay and Sunny. Glory told Clay about the dolphins, and his head went up hopefully.

"Can we eat them?"

"No, and ick, Clay. Why would you want to eat a dolphin?" Phantomtide asked the Mudwing with slight disgust in his tone.

"Queen Coral has forbidden it." Riptide called back over his shoulder. "She thinks they might be distantly related to us. Here comes our welcoming committee." A formation of blue and green dragons - fifteen or more, with huge wings and bared teeth, hissing from the Seawings heard from the distance between the two groups.

"Uh-oh." Riptide muttered.

"Clay, stop and hover." Tsunami instructed. He paused in the air, with Phantomtide and Glory close beside him.

"What's happening?" Sunny asked, lifting her head from Starflight's shoulder as they caught up.

"The advance guard," Riptide said as he swung in a slow full circle around the group and stopped in front again, facing the incoming dragons. Phantomtide broke away from Clay's side and hovered besides Riptide.

"They make sure no dragon gets close to the Summer Palace." Phantomtide cut into Riptide's explanation. A few moments later, they were surrounded. The flapping wingbeats filled their ears and pushed the air currents around.

"Rrrriptide," growled the dragon in the lead. His scales were a green so dull it was almost gray, like stone where moss had been scraped away. He had tiny bone-pale eyes that never seemed to blink under a knobby protruding forehead, and his horns twisted strangely toward each. Phantomtide recognized this Seawing, and the Seawing undoubtedly recognized him. "And the little Phantom. What are you dragging home now." he snarled.

" _Shark_. How nice to see you too." Phantomtide met the Seawing's glare with an equally nasty look. Riptide looked Shark straight in the eyes as well, then spoke up to avoid a fight.

"He's brought the missing princess." A ripple of shock went through the other Seawings.

"Oh, really?" Shark glared at Riptide, then Phantomtide, before his unsettling eyes scanned Tsunami behind the two. "And you ran into them, Riptide? Of all dragons? What an unusual coincidence."

"Tsunami, this is the commander of the palace defense, and brother to the queen, Shark."

"Oh, _really,_ " Tsunami said, making her tone even more insolent and challenging than Shark's. He narrowed his eyes until they nearly disappeared into his scales.

"What makes you believe this snip of a dragon comes from the stolen royal egg?" He asked Phantomtide.

"Why, do you lose a lot of eggs?" Tsunami jumped in. "Maybe whoever's in charge of defense isn't doing such a good job, then. Oh, wait, that's you, isn't it?"

"Her story fits." Phantomtide injected. "She's been raised by Webs. And then there's the pattern under her wings." All the Seawings craned their necks to stare at Tsunami's wings. Starbursts and spirals lit up under her wings, the only patterns on the Seawings matching hers were present on Shark, and strangely, on Phantomtide. Tsunami lifted her head and met Shark's gaze triumphantly, to which he replied with a long hissing breath.

"Very well," he said. "Kill the other four and bring her, along with the hybrid."


	14. The Summer Palace

"Don't you touch them!" Tsunami yelled as she whirled to smack a Seawing out of the sky as he reached for Clay. Starflight had already ducked below Clay's massive wings, and Glory drew her neck back and bared her fangs. Phantomtide immediately moved to block another one of Shark's Seawings from approaching Clay's other side.

"I am the queen's daughter and I order you to leave these dragonets alone!" Tsunami shouted. The guards looked from her to Shark uncertainly. He slowly raised one talon and made a circling motion with it - a sign in the Seawing language of Aquatic, one Phantomtide was familiar with. _You've shown it to me before when you and I first tangled. 'Not right now, we'll finish this later.' No, Shark, you won't. Not on my watch!_ The Seawing guards backed away from the dragonets. "Very good," Tsunami said, trying to sound like she was in command. "Now take us to my mother."

"The queen is conducting business at the Deep Palace," Shark stated flatly. "We'll take you to the Summer Palace, where you may wait for her." He made another talon signal, and two of the guards broke away from the group, winging off across the water. Then the group flew on, islands flashing by below them. Phantomtide, however, was switching his gaze from one guard to the next, still wary of them and Shark. Shark suddenly swerved and dove toward the base of a cliff, splashing down between two spiraling rocks like dragon horns, vanishing instantly into the azure water. Then, one by one, half the guards around them dove for the same spot, and each of them disappeared the same way - gone before the bubbles of their splash had cleared.

"We swim from here, through the entrance to the Summer Palace." Phantomtide explained to the dragonets. Sunny let out a small, unhappy noise.

"How far?" She asked.

"You only have to stay underwater for short swims," Riptide answered. "It's been redesigned so Queen Blister in particular can visit."

"And she hates water," Sunny said hopefully. "since she's a Sandwing, too."

"Is she, uh - is she here now?" Starflight asked. Riptide shook his head.

"She's not fond of swimming, and even after all the changes we've made, she rarely visits."

"One less problem to deal with at the moment. Good." Phantomtide muttered.

"Stay close behind me," Riptide said. "I'll light up my stripes so you can follow, and I'll flash them to signal you to surface at the breathing spots."

"Um," Clay spoke up. "So . . . about this blindfold, uh . . . any chance -"

"Once we're in the tunnel, Clay." Phantomtide told him as Riptide dove for the dragon-horn rocks. Tsunami dove right after Riptide.

"Deep breaths, Clay." She called. Phantomtide dove right behind the Mudwing. After they located the hole in the cliff, they proceeded to swim to it. However, Clay attempted to help by beating his wings and kicking helpfully, but he kept accidentally whacking into underwater boulders, causing everyone behind him to slow down or pause entirely for a moment. When they popped out into the tunnel, Riptide guided Clay into it and proceed to unwrap the seaweed blindfold. Phantomtide moved past them, heading straight for the entrance to the Summer Palace, unable to wait any longer. He did feel great while in water, but he preferred dry land whenever he could. He lit up his own glowing scales to illuminate the twists and turns of the tunnel, ignoring the frequent stops for breathing. Finally, after swimming past at least ten stops, light appeared ahead. A moment later, he burst out of the tunnel and into an open lake, from which he immediately took into the air. Clearing his eyes, Phantomtide noticed over a hundred blue and green dragons surrounding the lake. When the dragonets and Riptide lifted their heads above the water, all of the hundred stared expectantly at Tsunami. They had reached the Summer Palace of the Seawings, in the heart of the Kingdom of the Sea.


	15. Into the deep

Phantomtide landed on the nearest stretch of sand. He remembered the towering cliffs on all sides, and the thick green canopy filtering in sunlight, made of vines and treetops woven so tightly it looked like a jungle overhead. The light held a sea-green quality that Phantomtide held some comfort with. Waterfalls cascaded down from several holes in the cliffs, like slender dragon tails of silver, bursting into spray as they hit the lake. Four pillars of blue-tinted white stone spiraled out of the water, winding toward one another until they formed a towering pavilion in the middle of the lake. The pavilion held twelve circular levels, each one smaller than the one below. There were a few walls, most lof them very low, and the whole structure was latticed with curving shapes, holes, and little wading pools. Dragons were clustered along the edges of the pavilion, on ledges of the cliffs, and all across the water, all staring directly at Tsunami. Phantomtide motioned for the dragonets to get out of the water with his wing, which Starflight set off for the stretch of sand in a frantic paddle, breaking the silence. Sunny, Clay, and Glory followed him to the sand. Tsunami, however, stayed where she was.

"Hello, fellow Seawings," she called out, then paused as her voice echoed off the rocks. "I'm Tsunami, and, um - I'm very happy to be home at last, and - and I look forward to meeting each of you." She lifted up her wings and lit them up. A murmur ran around the the gathered dragons. Phantomtide turned to the dragonets sprawled on the white pebbles of the beach, wings spread out and gasping. All except for Glory, who will was sitting neatly by a cave, peering in, her silver scales mottled with azure blue. Tsunami thwacked the water with her tail to get their attention. Clay and Phantomtide looked, she pointed to the pavilion. Both nodded, and she lifted into the air, Riptide beside her. Phantomtide turned to the dragonets, before clearing his throat.

"Shall we get moving? Tsunami's waiting for us to join her." They nodded, one by one, then stood up and shook their wings to dislodge any excess water. They followed Tsunami's flight path to the top floor of the pavilion. Phantomtide landed first, then the other four crashed down around the ledge. Sunny landed lightly and avoided the channels of water, Clay somehow stumbled as his claws hit the stone and nearly somersaulted right off the other side. Glory darted in his way and pushed him back, then made another loop and landed close to the throne raised and carved on one end, studded with emeralds and sapphires. Besides and below was another, smaller throne. Phantomtide studied the second one, certain that the last time he had been on the pavilion, there had been only one throne, for Queen Coral. _Odd...did Blister literally order the creation of a throne here, just for her? Or did Queen Coral predict Tsunami's return? It's possible neither are true...in that case-_ Phantomtide's train of thought was interrupted by the arrival of Starflight, who landed and collapsed into a woeful black puddle. Sunny hopped over to him and nudged his wing gently.

"This is a really big thing!" Clay said to Tsunami and Riptide. His tail accidentally splashed Glory, but she was too busy looking at the throne to snap at him. "I mean, this thing we're standing on. What do you call it? It's really tall - taller than our prisons in the Sky Kingdom, I think." He peered ovwr the edge, missing Riptide's sharp look. _Ack, Clay, shut up! He doesn't know Queen Scarlet and Skywings captured us a while back!_ "I like it," Clay went on, sitting down and splashing Glory again. "Of course, it's much nicer to be this high when your wings are free. But at least the Skywings gave us a pig sometimes. Do you have pigs? Octopi would be alright if you don't. Or squid. Or manatees. I could go for a manatee right now. Or a whale. I'm not fussy, is what I'm saying. Say, how did you make this big thing? Did it take forever to build?" Riptide blinked for a moment, following Clay's train of thought.

"The pavilion? An animus Seawing designed it, many generations ago, and magicked the stone to grow this way. Even so, it took nearly ten years to reach this form."

"Wow," Clay said, clearly impressed. Riptide glanced at Phantomtide for a moment, which made the hybrid avert his gaze. _Riptide...I hope you doesn't know my little 'secret…'_

"This top level is where Queen Coral meets new visitors, like us," Tsunami's voice brought Phantomtide out of his thoughts. "So when she arrives, everyone please act like dragonets of destiny instead of half-drowned seagulls, for goodness' sake." Sunny looked wounded, and Starflight sniffed loudly while Glory turned up her snout like she wasn't taking orders from Tsunami. Clay poked his nose over the edge and blinked at the lower pavilion tiers.

"You all should probably listen to Tsunami on this one, guys. Queen Coral isn't going to take lightly to disrespect...especially since -"

"Which level is the feasting on?" Clay asked. "You do have feasting, right?" His wide brown eyes turned to Riptide. "No reason. Just wondering."

"Sure, sometimes we have feasts," Riptide answered. "Especially when Queen Blister is -" Phantomtide was about to tell Riptide to shove off with the 'Queen' Blister when a commotion from below interrupted Riptide. Tsunami sprang to the edge, with Phantomtide joining her quickly in gazing down at the lake. A huge blue Seawing, the same color as Tsunami, burst out of the tunnel. Vines of pearls were woven around her horns, neck, and wings, with a twisted white horn with a wicked-looking point attaches at the end of her tail. Odd, yet familiar, black stains were present on her claws. _Queen Coral...as beautiful as ever…_ Phantomtide smiled inside, observing the dragons folding down in low bows, all over the Summer Palace. As she shot out of the water, a thin, webbed harness was present on the Seawing Queen, with a long cord. The cord led to a harness on another dragon, flying close behind the Queen.

 _What...what in three moons? That is rather weird...but then, that dragon is most likely Queen Coral's daughter?_ Phantomtide glanced sideways at Tsunami. _And her little sister?!_ The second dragon was much smaller - a dragonet only about a year old, perhaps. She flapped her wings frantically, trying to keep up. Phantomtide looked at the underside of her wings, noticing the royal pattern.

"Who is that?" Tsunami hissed at Riptide, who was backing away to the edge of the floor, the farthest spot from the throne.

"That's Anemone," he said, blinking in surprise. "Your sister."


	16. Queen Coral

_Anemone...another heir for the throne...Well, looks like Tsunami isn't the only one._

"Uh-oh," Glory said to Tsunami. "Looks like you've got some competition. Maybe you're not destined to be queen after all." Tsunami whirled toward Starflight with her gills flaring.

"You said I was the only one," she cried. "You said none of the others survived."

"That's what I read," Starflight protested. He spread his black claws. "Blame the Talons, not me. Our scrolls were often old and outdated. _The Royal Lineage of the Seawings, from the Scorching to the Present_ must have been written before this one was hatched." He nodded at the little dragon flapping behind the queen. Anemone was a pale, pale blue, almost white like an Icewing, with hints of pink along her wings, ears, and horns. Her eyes were large and blue, and tiny strands of pearls woven around her neck and tail as if to match her mother's. Queen Coral suddenly landed and ran towards Tsunami.

"My baby!" Coral cried. Enormous blue wings whooshed around Tsunami, enveloping her in a hug that blocked view of Tsunami from Phantomtide and the other dragonets. "I knew you'd come back to me," Coral said. "I knew you were out there, trying to find your way back. I never stopped searching for you." Phantomtide glanced at the other dragonets, noticing Glory was rolling her eyes while the other three watched Queen Coral hug Tsunami.

" _Mother,_ " whined a tiny voice from behind Coral. " _Ow._ That was too fast. I think I hurt my claws." Queen Coral let go of Tsunami, whirled around, and tugged Anemone closer with the harness cord. The little dragonet crept under her wing and held out her front talons with a pitiful expression.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart," Coral said, carefully examining Anemone's claws and then giving them a quick lick with her forked tongue. "Is that better?"

"I guess." Anemone said, flexing her talons mournfully.

"Look, darling, it's your sister. The one I told you about, who was stolen six years ago." Coral reached out and slid one webbed talon over Tsunami's snout. "Isn't she gorgeous?" Tsunami held out one of her front talons to Anemone, and after a small pause, Anemone pressed her own talon against it.

"Hi," Tsunami said. "I'm Tsunami."

"Ah," Queen Coral said. "A good name. Webs did one thing right." Her green eyes narrowed. "Where is he now? I have been planning his punishment for years." She glared over Tsunami's shoulder, but the only dragon there was Riptide, head ducked and wings folded as low as he could get. "I knew he was a coward and a deserter," Coral said, "but after he returned to steal my egg . . . well, let's just say it won't be a quick death."

"Oh, no," Sunny squeaked. "Please don't hurt him. He was the only one who was really nice to us." Phantomtide immediately moved in front of the other four dragonets, knowing what was about to happen.

"We don't know where he is anyway," Tsunami said as Queen Coral turned to stare at Sunny. "He escaped when -"

"What are _you_?" Coral asked Sunny. Her gaze fell to the other dragonets and Phantomtide, and her tail lashed dangerously. "WHY IS THERE A MUDWING IN MY SUMMER PALACE?" She took a step toward Clay, gills flaring.

"These are my friends," Tsunami cried, leaping in front of Clay, as did Phantomtide, blocking Coral. "You can trust them, I promise. We were all stolen from our homes as eggs. We're the dragonets of destiny, from the prophecy."

"Ha," muttered a voice. Phantomtide looked in the direction of it and noticed nine very large dragons perched on the ledge with Shark.

"Oh," Queen Coral said slowly. "Oh, I see." She studied Clay suspiciously, then turned her gaze to Starflight, Sunny, and Glory. "Yes, that was the rumor. If you believe in things like prophecies, of course. Dragonets of destiny. Well, Queen Blister will be so interested to meet you. We'd better make sure you don't go anywhere." She flashed the royal pattern along your wings and clapped her front talons together. Seven burly Seawings rose up behind the dragonets, claws twitching ominously.

"Put these four in Blister's cave," Queen Coral commanded, "and set up a guard so they stay there."

"What?" Sunny cried. "But we came here to be safe! Not to be prisoners again!" She squeaked in terror as one guard snatched her into the air. Starflight stared after her, frozen in place with his claws half outstretched.

"Hey!" Phantomtide yelled at the guard holding Sunny, then turned to Coral. "With all due respect, Queen Coral, this isn't necessary!"

"Nobody touches me," Glory snarled at the Seawing who was reaching for her. Black clouds billowed up in her scales.

"Don't hurt Sun - ow," Clay yelped as three Seawings landed on him at once, pinning him down. "Ouch! Ow!" One began lashing woven seaweed ropes around his wings, claws, and snout. Phantomtide felt the situation veering out of any possible control he or the dragonets could've had.

"Wait," Tsunami spoke up. She clasped her talons pleasingly. "Your Majesty . . . Mother. You don't have to do this. They're my friends, and I brought them here so you could protect us. I swear they're trustworthy."

"It's for their own safety, too, dear," Queen Coral said, stroking Tsunami's head again. "We won't hurt them, of course. You've come to the right place for protection. But they shouldn't wander the palace unsupervised - most of my dragons will attack Mudwings and unfamiliar Sandwings on sight."

"Or whatever that is," Shark muttered.

"We'll ask for your input when we want it, Shark." Phantomtide met Shark's gaze, initiating a glaring contest.

"I guess this means no feast?" Clay said mournfully. He rested his snout on the stone with a sigh.

"Food can certainly be arranged," said the queen. "Lagoon, make sure our guests are well fed." A plump turquoise dragon bowed and dove off the ledge. "See, darling, we'll take good care of you all. Please tell that one to stop looking so fierce." Phantomtide broke his gaze from Shark to look at Glory, who was still facing off with a nervous-looking Seawing guard.

"You don't have to tie them up." Tsunami said. "They'll go with you."

"Speak for yourself." Glory growled.

"Calm down, Glory." Tsunami attempted to persuade the Rainwing. "You heard the queen. It's for your own safety. You'll be fine." Glory glared at the Seawing guard for a moment longer.

"All right," she snarled "I'll go with you. But I still say nobody touches me."

"Fair enough," Queen Coral purred with another gesture and flash of her stripes. "Off you all go, then. Except for you," Queen Coral nodded at Phantomtide. "You're free to move around the Palace. Tsunami, darling, come and sit with me and let's talk." She swept over to her throne, towing Anemone behind her. Phantomtide immediately flapped his wings and flew to a lower level of the pavilion, about four levels to a floor with low walls and several shapes like large cauldrons molded into the stone. Black and blue webbed talon prints trailed all over the floor, and a raised podium at one end with enough space for thirty dragons. From his last visit to the Summer Palace, he remembered this particular area from a small tour. The long grey stone table was on the other end of the room, with a scroll spread open on it. Phantomtide approached the table, peeked at the scroll to see it was only half written, and instinctively turned away from it.

 _If it's not done, I'm going to read it only when it is. However . . ._ Phantomtide looked at the roof, thinking of the dragonets, Tsunami, and Queen Coral. _This situation I'm in may degenerate very fast, especially if Blister arrives. . ._


	17. Alarming news

Phantomtide looked through the scrolls neatly packed inside one of the cauldrons, hoping to have something to read. It was one of his favorite things to do when he wasn't occupied with other matters. The scroll he picked up was none other than _The Missing Princess._ Phantomtide stared at the scroll for a few seconds, his thoughts drifting off, wondering if Queen Coral wrote the story for her actual missing daughter. Movement in the corner of his eyesight brought him back to reality. Phantomtide turned to see Queen Coral, Anemone, and Tsunami enter the floor of the pavilion. The queen eyed Phantomtide before he spoke up.

"I kept my promise, Your Majesty."

"Yes . . ." Queen Coral nodded. "You clearly did. And I will keep mine."

"What promise?" Tsunami asked, looking at both Phantomtide and Queen Coral in confusion.

"Some time ago, he was found in a close location to the Summer Palace. He was suspected of being a spy for Burn or Blaze, but he made a promise in exchange for his freedom. That was to find you, dear, and escort you here."

"Oh…" Tsunami gave Phantomtide a curious glance, before peering at the scroll spread out on the table.

"That's my work in progress," Queen Coral said proudly. "Whirlpool, come here!" She bustled over to the cauldron Phantomtide was next to, then glanced at the scroll in Phantomtide's talons.

"Oh, sorry. I was just curious to see if I could find any new scrolls to read." He placed the scroll back into the cauldron.

"This is beautiful," Tsunami said, grabbing their attention as she lifted one of the carved seahorses on the table.

"Orca made those," Queen Coral said sadly. "My first daughter. She was a very talented sculptor." _First...daughter? What happened to her?_ Phantomtide wanted to ask that, but a dark green dragon with pale green eyes rose up from the Council level. He had a remarkably large gold loop piercing in one ear and dappled light green scales in wave patterns along his back. Similar dark stains, like Coral's, were present on his talons.

"Your Majesty," he said with an elaborate bow. "And Your Smaller Majesties." His voice was oily and slow, like squids creeping into Phantomtide's ears. "And the infamous Phantom." He bowed to Tsunami and Anemone as he settled onto the floor behind the stone table. His eyes glared at Phantomtide before immediately going to the scroll in front of him, and he tilted his head thoughtfully. After a moment, he reached forward and dipped one claw into a small pool of black ink in the top corner of the table. With that ink, he scratched a few more words at the point where the scroll went blank.

"Oh," Tsunami said, glancing from his talons to her mother's. "Oh, it's _ink_."

"Yes, dear," said Queen Coral. She pulled an armful of scrolls out of the cauldron, prompting Phantomtide to move a few feet away. "It's a special formula made of squid ink and a touch of whale blood, do it never fades. Immortality is worth a few claw stains, don't you agree? Whirlpool invented it. He's terribly clever." She peered at the words he had written. "Exactly what I was thinking! This is an exciting one, isn't it?"

"Certain to win all the awards in the kingdom, Your Majesty." Whirlpool oozed. Queen Coral piled four scrolls into Tsunami's talons.

"These are my favorites. You can read them all tonight, and tomorrow I'll give you four of my other favorites."

"Read all these tonight? Tsunami echoed, sounding dismayed.

"Start with this one," Queen Coral said, plucking one of the scrolls free. It was the one Phantomtide had, _The Missing Princess._

"I've read that one!" Tsunami cried. "That was my favorite story ever."

"Really?" Queen Coral looked delighted. "I wrote it for you!"

"You -" Tsunami looked from Queen Coral to Whirlpool and the scroll on the table "You _wrote The Missing Princess_?"

"I wrote all of these," Queen Coral waved her talons at all the scrolls in the cauldron. "I'm really quite prolific. Whirlpool makes sure hundreds of copies are instantly made and distributed all over Seawing territory - and wherever else on Pyrrhia we can send them. My communications herald, Moray, is in charge of the printer dragons who make the underwater copies. She also makes sure they all go to the schools. But Whirlpool organizes my readings here. Isn't he brilliant?" She lowered her voice and winked at Tsunami. "And don't you think he's very handsome?" Phantomtide glanced at the dragon in question and almost lost it. Whirlpool might be many things, but handsome wasn't on that list. And apparently, Tsunami thought the same thing, as Phantomtide saw her slightly flinch.

"He'll make a fabulous king one day," Queen Coral added in a loud whisper. Phantomtide was moments from bursting into laughter, clearly confused on what Queen Coral saw in Whirlpool. He struggled to keep himself from laughing and bit his tongue to do so.

"Your Majesty." They all turned and found another dragon hovering in the air behind the queen, with a smaller dragon beside her. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but Urchin just arrived with strange news. I knew you'd want to hear it right away."

"Of course, Moray," said Queen Coral. "You always know what's best." Moray's scales were the same dull gray green as Shark's, and her eyes were also small and colorless. _That's strange . . . Is Moray Shark's daughter or something . . ._ Moray pressed her snout into a brief smug look.

"That's because I have had excellent training at the side of the most wonderful queen in Pyrrhian history. Although I don't appreciate that queen trusts mongrels like him." Moray gave Phantomtide a nasty glare that reminded the hybrid of Shark.

"Now, now, Moray. Don't speak of my daughter's friend like that. He did keep his promise, like he said he would."

Moray just shrugged and went on.

"Apparently a dead dragon has been found only a few islands away from the Summer Palace."

"Oh, how sad," said Queen Coral with a little yawn. She glanced at her scrolls as if she wanted to get back to them. "What happened to him?"

"Her," said Moray. "And we don't know yet. But the strange part is that it's not a Seawing. It's a Skywing."

"WHAT?" Queen Coral leaped to her talons. "That close to the palace?" She snapped at the air and spread her wings. "Get Shark and Piranha and take me to the body. Now." The queen shot into the air with Anemone flapping wildly to keep up. Tsunami dropped the scrolls and jumped after them, flying in a tight spiral down to the water with Phantomtide right beside her. He passed her and hit the water first, swimming right behind Queen Coral, with an angry-looking Shark behind him. After a few moments of swimming after the queen and Anemone, they surfaced and landed on a large craggy boulder at the base of an enormous cliff. Phantomtide hovered in the air, hoping to glimpse the Skywing's face. _I saw several of them when Scarlet had me a prisoner . . . So I might recognize her._ Phantomtide landed on a rock closer to the body, in an attempt to inspect it. To his surprise, none of the arriving dragons tried to stop him. The first thing he noticed was deep slashes across the throat. The second thing was a sense of familiarity with the corpse. In a heartbeat, he realized who it was. It was Kestrel, the Skywing who had raised the dragonets. She was dead, and someone had clearly murdered her. Phantomtide backed up, in shock, and surprise, but nobody took this as strange. Just then, Tsunami arrived, and from the look on her face, she knew who the dragon was as well.


	18. The Council

Phantomtide had flown back before the others, the image of Kestrel's slashed throat fresh in his mind. He couldn't figure out who would want to kill the Skywing, apart from Glory or Tsunami, judging their reactions to Kestrel the last time they had seen each other. Back at the palace, Phantomtide pondered on the topic of Kestrel's killer, and if the same dragon was after the dragonets.

 _If that is true, then the killer is targeting those who raised the dragonets . . . the Sandwing was killed by Scarlet, Kestrel by this unknown dragon, and Webs is somewhere . . . to what end? What would be the purpose of doing it?_

"I see you are lost in thought, once again. It's been some time, Phantom." Phantomtide turned his neck to look at the dragon who spoke to him. A deep, dark blue Seawing with peach horns, claws, and wings, and lime green eyes. She looked at him with a look that barely few of the other Seawings gave the hybrid, and for that, he was happy.

"It has been quite a bit since our last meeting, Salmon. How's life treating you and Angler?"

"As fine as it can. I'm still part of the Council, and Angler has moved up through the military rankings. Have you run into Emerald anywhere?"

"Him? Twice. Still alive last I saw him." Salmon and Phantomtide, making a eerily awkward few moments that seemed to last an eternity.

"Well, don't worry your head over him. He's as strong as his father, and knows how to survive in the war. Speaking of which, his room is open, if you need some place to sleep off the night." Salmon turned around, then flew off to turn in for the night herself, leaving Phantomtide to ponder on her offer and the other thoughts plaguing the hybrid.

". . .Gah, I'm not going to figure out anything on the whole scenario with whoever murdered Kestrel, not without some sort of miracle clue. And that is most definitely not going to just arrive." He sighed, then got up and followed Salmon's flight path to the part of Summer Palace that Salmon and Angler had made their room. He located the place, entered, and fell asleep on a stone ledge covered in seaweed. It was the most comfortable thing he had slept on for his whole life.

When he woke up, Phantomtide felt better than he had, with the conditions outside the Summer Palace being less than ample. But then again, beggars can't be choosers. He exited the room to find Salmon waiting by the doorway.

"You all rested up? Queen Coral requested I bring you along to today's Council meeting. Something about 'keeping a promise.' I don't know what that means, but sounds pretty big."

"Then let's not keep anyone waiting." He followed her out of the cave, flying to the pavilion's Council level. As soon as they landed, Queen Coral arrived a second later with Anemone and Tsunami. Phantomtide stood while Salmon settled into a small pool labeled **HUNTING**. Queen Coral settled herself in the largest pool, which was labeled **QUEEN**. She tugged Anemone into the water with her, although it was a squeeze for the little dragonet, who had to curl under the queen's wing.

" _Mother_ ," Anemone protested. "Quit _squashing_ me." Small turquoise dragons darted in with platters of food, laying them all around the pools as the other Council members slipped into their places. Tsunami and Phantomtide were the only ones standing awkwardly to the side.

"Oh," said Queen Coral, finally noticing them. "Tsunami, you can sit there. Tortoise is guarding the hatchery at the Deep Palace, so she won't be joining us today. And you can sit there, Phantom." The queen pointed her claw at a pool two down from hers, labeled **DRAGONET CARE** , and at the pool next to that one, three down from the queen, labeled **FOREIGN AFFAIRS**. Phantomtide didn't make much sense of that, but he did know he had the most knowledge of the other tribes, and that undoubtedly was an edge for the Seawings. If she did keep her promise. The wet stone chilled Phantomtide, but he was used to such a feeling, as he climbed into the pool. The pools on either side of the queen said **DEFENSE** & **COMMUNICATION**. Shark splashed down in the first one, and a moment later, Moray landed in the other.

"Good morning, Your Majesty," Moray said, bowing and dipping her wings. "I know yesterday was a shocking day, but I hope you slept well. I was worried about you all night."

"Thank you, dear," said the queen. Her eyes were scanning the rest of the Council. Whirlpool flew up beside Moray, landing in a pool labeled **MAGIC & PUBLISHING**. This immediately sparked a thought in Phantomtide, as he only magic he knew of was animus. _Does that mean there's a animus here? Possibly even right here, right now? It's limited to royals...so not Tsunami, since I would have learned of it. Shark? Probably not. Queen Coral doesn't, obviously, so that leaves . . . Anemone?_ He looked at the small dragonet curled besides Coral. _That's the only real reason for this 'magic' thing Whirlpool oversees._

"Ah, yes. I didn't mention the news." Queen Coral said, grabbing the attention of the Council members. "Because he fulfilled his promise, Phantom has been granted the rights of any other Seawing, and the fact he is royalty," the queen nodded to the royal pattern on Phantomtide's wings. "allows him to join the Council as the leader of Foreign Affairs, from his useful knowledge of the other tribes."

Most of the dragons present smiled, excluding Shark and Moray, who gave Phantomtide stares of pure contempt. However, in an instant, the whole Council stared right at Tsunami. Phantomtide turned to look as well, then noticed the bit of octopus in Tsunami's claws. Nobody else had started eating, presumably waiting for permission from the queen. All the Council's eyes swiveled toward Coral, who was staring at the bit Tsunami was holding. She shook herself and smiled.

"It's all right," the queen said, clapping her talons together. "Naturally I forgive my long-lost daughter any accidental impudence. As we all know, she was raised by barbarians, so she couldn't know better. I give you all permission to eat." Phantomtide watched Tsunami crush the tentacle between her claws. He felt sorry for Tsunami, being called out like that by her own mother. But despite his concern, he didn't recall the last time he had good food as he looked over the spread before helping himself to what was within reach of him.


	19. Royal Revelation

"Pearl, report," ordered the queen after the dragons had eaten in silence for a while.

"No change," said the elegant pale green dragon in the treasury pool. "All your jewels are safe, as always. No scavengers can get to them, and no dragon would dare to try."

"Splendid," said Coral. She upended the last of a cauldron of crabs into her mouth. "Shark, report." _So this is how the Council works. I could get used to this, if Tsunami and the other dragonets are truly safe here in the Summer Palace. A place where I can belong. . ._

"I'm concerned about our defenses," snarled the gray-green dragon, bringing Phantomtide back to the Council. Shark glared at both Tsunami and Phantomtide. 'These intruders in our midst are a danger to us. We have no idea whether they might have led others to our palace, or what they might be planning."

"Now, now," said the queen. "Those are our guests, not intruders. If my daughter trusts them, then of course I do too."

"Oh, good," Tsunami said quickly. "Because I was thinking maybe they could join us for breakfast. I'm sure they're hungry. And if they could see that they're really welcome here . . ." She trailed off as Coral shook her head.

"Only Council members and royalty are allowed at Council meetings, darling." Queen Coral said, running one claw along a strand of her pearls. "But they certainly won't go hungry. Lagoon, did you make sure they were served an ample breakfast?" The turquoise dragon nodded, to which Phantomtide felt like that wasn't the truth. _I'll go see Glory and the others after the meeting._

"They can have the rest of this as well." Queen Coral waved her talons at the breakfast leftovers. The same small dragons from before darted up from the kitchen level, collected the platters, and flew down to the cave with them.

"Whirlpool, report," Coral smiled at him. Whirlpool touched the hoop in his ear and flared his wings.

"Anemone's lessons are going wonderfully," Phantomtide winced at the dragon's voice, which felt like claws scraping against stone. "And your scrolls have never been more popular. The latest has been bought by every Seawing in the tribe."

"Mostly the underwater editions," Moray jumped in. "Those tend to sell the best. Of course, I spend all my energy promoting them -"

"But I've organized another reading," Whirlpool interrupted. "Every high-ranking dragon is clamoring to attend. We're charging an emerald apiece this time." Queen Coral waved her tail thoughtfully.

"I want to be sure I'm reaching the eel-eating masses as well, though," she said. "I mean, my writing should be shared with everyone, not just those who can afford it."

"Of course," Moray said. "That's why the schools have all changed their curriculums again to be sure the dragonets have enough time to read everything you've written. It's the most important subject they study."

"You can't be serious," Tsunami burst out. "More important than how to fight the war?" Cold silence was her answer. Queen Coral pressed a talon to her chest, looking injured.

"Darling, my writing is about _everything_. As you would know if you finished The scrolls I gave you yesterday. What did you think of them?"

"Uh," she mumbled. " _The Missing Princess_ is still my favorite." A chuckle ran through the assembled dragons, excluding Coral, Anemone, and Phantomtide.

"That reminds me," said the queen. "Whirlpool, Tsunami needs lessons in Aquatic. Can you believe she never learned it, poor thing?" She tapped her claws on the stone in front of her. "Such a sad upbringing." Her face was sympathetic, but her stripes were flashing at the same moment. "And now that I think about it, you'll need to learn Aquatic too, Phantom. You can learn from Whirlpool with Tsunami."

"Of course, Your Majesty." Whirlpool said. He inclined his head toward Tsunami. "I'll be happy to instruct the princess and . . ." He trailed off for a moment. "and the _prince_." Shark immediately gave a low-tone growl at the word, glaring at Phantomtide.

"Now, now. He may be of Nightwing heritage, but he is Seawing royalty nonetheless. As such, he holds the title of Prince. Piranha, report." Queen Coral snapped her head around to the war pool. The war commander was so clawed up that she seemed to be more scars than scales. One horn was snapped in half, and several of her teeth were broken.

"Still no information about the dead Skywing," Piranha growled. Phantomtide glanced sideways at Tsunami, who ducked her head. _Eventually, this is going to come out. Kestrel's death and who caused it, are things I'll need permission to look into._ "A war party returned early this morning." Piranha went on. "Do you want to hear their report?" Queen Coral sighed and gestured with her claws. Piranha called over the edge and two soldier Seawings came flying up from a lower level. One was too injured to fly, so the other supported him. They spiraled in a jerking, awkward motion and landed heavily in the center of the Council meeting. The Seawing who couldn't fly had longtime burns along his side and one wing was scorched almost entirely black. Claw marks along his underbelly were still oozing blood, which dripped into the sparkling channels between the Council dragons, staining the pearls red. Salmon gave a small gasp from her pool, as she and Phantomtide recognized that Seawing. He and Salmon were mates. The other Seawing had a scorch mark in the middle of his tail and a horrible gash in his neck. He was breathing heavily, and bubbles of pale red blood foamed out of his gills.

"Let's hear it," Queen Coral ordered.

"Something strange is happening in the Sky Kingdom, Your Majesty," Angler spoke up. "The battalions - it's as if nobody knows who's in charge. We were patrolling the outer islands, and we were attacked by three separate wings. The first squadron was half Skywings and half Sandwings. During the second attack, we heard the Skywings yelling, 'For Ruby!" and in the third, at least one dragon shouted, 'The queen is not dead! Long live the queen!' " Queen Coral sat forward, splashing water over the edge of the pool and squashing Anemone to the side.

"For _Ruby_?" she echoed.

"One of Scarlet's daughters," growled Piranha. "Does that mean Queen Scarlet is dead?"

"We would have heard if there had been a challenge, surely," said Moray. Queen Coral shot a stern look at the blue dragon in the secrets and spies pool.

"Why don't you know anything about this?"

"None of my spies have reported in for days," he protested. "I had no idea anything strange was happening in the Sky Kingdom." Angler leaning more and more dizzily against his companion. Puddles of blood soaked their claws.

"Mother," Tsunami said. "Shouldn't somebody look at their injuries?" She pointed at the soldiers. Coral eyed them up and down.

"Anything else to report?"

"Twelve casualties," Angler croaked. "All the rest badly injured."

"But nobody followed you back to the palace?" demanded Shark.

"We were careful," Angler promised, wincing with pain. "We took the longest routes back."

"Very well." Queen Coral waved her talons dismissively. "You may go." She flicked her talon at the smallest Council member, in the **DRAGON HEALTH** pool, who ushered the soldiers away. Moray immediately jumped out of her own pool and started cleaning up the blood on the floor.

"If there us chaos in the Sky Kingdom, maybe this is the time to strike," Coral said. She wrapped one strand of pearls around her claws. "We should send the rescue mission now. We could get him back _today_." With a wrenching feeling in his gut, Phantomtide knew who she was talking about.

"We don't know enough," growled the secrets and spies dragon. "If Scarlet is dead, how did she die? Did Ruby kill her, or is she fighting with her sisters for the throne?" Moray hissed at the blood under her claws.

"Like the Sandwing rivalry all over again. Making the war even worse."

"Or has Burn taken over?" Piranha suggested. "She would, if she was there."

"But Scarlet's daughters might not listen to Burn the way Scarlet did."

"What could have happened?" Coral said. "Queen Scarlet was so strong."

"Um, Tsunami said. The entire Council turned to stare at her. "That . . . might have been us." There was a shocked pause.

"You!" barked Piranha.

"Ridiculous," snarled Shark.

"Queen Scarlet found us under the mountain," Tsunami said. "She held us prisoner in her palace with Phantomtide, and when we escaped, we sort of might have killed her. Maybe. I'm not sure. I will say we _tried_."

"You were at the Skywing palace?" Coral lunged out of her pool, swarmed across the stone, and seized Tsunami's front talons in her own. Anemone was yanked half out of the pool with a squeak of protest, but Coral didn't seem to notice.

"Did you see s Seawing named Gill? Green scales, big and powerful, with brave eyes?" Phantomtide knew Tsunami did, but not in the way Coral described him.

"I did see him," Tsunami said slowly. A gasp went up around her, whispers traveling from one Council member go the next.

"Can you tell us where he is?" Queen Coral asked urgently. "We've been planning a rescue mission, but he's not in the regular prison with the others. And we've got to get him back, Tsunami. You have no idea how important he is."

"He's -" Tsunami's voice cracked, and Phantomtide decided to jump in for her.

"Gill is dead, unfortunately."

"Dead?" Queen Coral released Tsunami's talons and staggered backward. Her claws splashed in the winding channels, slipping on pearls. "How?"

"Um," Tsunami stammered. "In the arena."

"But he refused to fight," Coral said. "We heard about it, through our spies. He convinced each of his opponents to lie down and refuse to fight along him. He has - had a way with words. No one who met him would be able to kill him." A smile flickered across her snout and vanished. "Queen Scarlet was furious, I heard."

"She was." Phantomtide said. "She punished him. It wasn't pretty . . ."

"What do you know about his death?" Shark demanded coldly.

"She drove him made." Tsunami stirred the water with her claws. "She kept him away from water until he lost his mind and - and when he was crazy, he was dangerous. He was barely even a dragon anymore. He had to be killed."

"Really," Shark said in a tone that sounded like he had guessed the truth.

"Why?" Tsunami asked. "Who - who was he? An important general?"

"More than that," said Queen Coral in a hollow tone. "Much more. He was my husband. Tsunami . . . Gill was your father."


	20. Overdue visit

Queen Coral dropped her head and slowly dragged herself back to her pool.

"Dead," she said. "My Gill is dead."

"No more eggs," Moray whispered. She still crouched in the center of the floor, scrubbing at the blood. Her eyes had a weird glow to them. "No more dragonets, no more challenges."

"Not necessarily. She could marry again," Whirlpool murmured. Moray shot him a glare. Coral didn't seem to hear either of them. She pulled Anemone into her wings and clutched her tightly. The little dragonet wriggled a bit, then gave up and rested her head on Coral's shoulder. Phantomtide glanced at Tsunami, only able to imagine what was going through her head about what happened in the Skywing arena.

"I must grieve," said the queen. "Council dismissed." She stepped off to the edge of the pavilion and took into the air towards her cave, still holding Anemone. The Council dragons peeled off to various caves, as Phantomtide slipped out of the pool and glanced sideways at Tsunami, who had buried her head in her pool with a firm grip on her horns.

Best not to bother her right now. The others, though, I should probably check on to see if they're doing all right. Phantomtide thought to himself as he moved over to the edge of the pavilion to look at the cave the dragonets were forced into. No guards were currently present, which sparked some concern in the hybrid. If there's no guards, then there's an alternate method they're using to keep them in there. He immediately took off towards the cave, landing outside of it and peering in. The dark shapes in the back of the cave immediately moved at the sound of Phantomtide landing.

"Tsunami? Phantom?" Sunny squeaked from amidst the shapes, as the little Sandwing tried to make out their visitor.

"It's just me." Phantomtide replied. "No Tsunami, unfortunately. She's occupied with other matters." He moved into the cave as he spoke, looking at each of the four, before noticing silver chain bindings that roped around each of Clay's ankles and bolted to rings in the floor. "Okay, I've missed something, apparently. Why are those where they are?!" Phantomtide asks the other three with rising anger in his voice.

"The guards chained him up." Glory replied. "They didn't give a who or why, just came in, did that, and took off." She looks at Phantomtide with a questioning glance. "By the expression on your face, you weren't in on this."

"Of course I didn't." Phantomtide growls. "I'm going to bite someone, after i get the keys from those guards. I'll be right back." He spun around and went for the exit, taking into the air to look for the same soldiers he saw guarding the cave earlier.

Within some time, a storm has started, flooding some parts of the caves., Phantomtide picks up the pace, searching for the guards before locating them. He lands in front of the Seawings who were assigned to guard the dragonets, who are playing a game on a low table involving rolling fish bones. They look to him with some confusion, then fear when they noticed the enraged glare in his eyes.

"Whichever one of you has them, give me the keys to the chains on the Mudwing." Phantomtide snarls at the guards, who flinch back.

"What key?" One of the guards mumbles, which earns a hiss from the hybrid.

"Keep on playing, and it's your loss." Phantomtide thrusts his talons forward, making the guard flinch. "Key. NOW." He almost roars. "And while you're at it, tell me who ordered this."

The guard quickly reaches into a niche in the table, pulling out a pair of heavy silver keys, as a loud thump sounds off besides Phantomtide as Tsunami, lands right next to the hybrid. The look on her face blantly states that she has learned of Clay's situation. The guard places the keys into Phantomtide's talons, as Tsunami gives the hybrid a questioning glance.

"It was our commander…" The second Seawing states, looking at Tsunami for help, but received only a shrug from the dragonet.

"Shark. Great." Phantomtide snarls as he thinks of the Seawing commander. "Great." He turns around, and takes off back to the cave, not waiting for Tsunami, who talks to the guards as the hybrid flies away.

Upon reaching the cave, the water had already risen close to Phantomtide's wings. He immediately waded inside the cavern and found Clay standing up, watching the rising water unhappily, with Sunny on his back. Glory and Starflight are in the water around, with Riptide besides them, both looking tremendously irritated at how wet they are.

"Did you get them?" Sunny asks with a hopeful expression, now wearing a harness that holds an egg in it . Phantomtide holds up the keys for the Sandwing to see, before moving up to duck his head under the water and unlock the shackles around Clay's ankles. The Sandwing yelped in joy, but Phantomtide didn't hear from the water in his ears as he unlocked the front chains, then the back chains as well.

"All better," Clay grins at Phantomtide as the hybrid pulls his head out of the water, then his stomach growls rather loudly."Well, almost all better."

"If you're ready, let's find somewhere dry, and I'll see about food." Tsunami says as she pokes her head into the cave. The other dragonets don't hesitate, moving out of the cave. "You should know a good place," Tsunami looks at Phantomtide. "I'll catch up with you guys." Phantomtide nods, following the dragonets as he sees Tsunami glance at Riptide, who's still in the shadows of the cave.

"Come on," Phantomtide says to the dragonets, taking into the sky. "I know a cave here that's safe from the water." He flies up to a cave far up the cliff, as the dragonets follow him up and in. The interior is empty and dry, then is warm as the four huddle inside, joined by Tsunami after a few moments. Sunny immediately curls around the egg, stroking it and murmuring to it. Starflight blew a small spurt of flame into the air to heat everyone up.

"The dragonet can't hear you." Tsunami points out to Sunny.

"We don't know that," Sunny replies. "She might be scared. I'm just telling her it's all right, and we'll take care of her."

"So, is there a reason behind that egg?" Phantomtide asks Tsunami, curious about it.

"It's the last surviving of mother's eggs, a female dragonet." Tsunami answers. "The other one was killed, and whoever did it might be after this one as well."

"I...see." Phantomtide studies the egg with a curious expression. "So we're on egg-duty."

"Pretty much." Glory grumbles, apparently not very fond of the idea."

"We're happy to see with you both again." Clay says to Tsunami and Phantomtide, nosing the former with his snout. "Tell us about the tribe. Does everyone adore you? Are they good fighters? What do they eat?" He finishes wistfully.

"Phantom can get you started on that, while I go find you some food first." Tsunami says as she turns and heads toward the cave entrance.

"Right…" Phantom sighs. "Alright, first off, nobody is fawning over me or Tsunami, Clay, and that sounds really weird behavior for a Seawing…"


	21. Royal Conspiracy Theory

"So, if that's right, how did they treat you both?" Starflight asks with a mix of a curious and disbelieving tone.

"Well, like normal other Seawings? I mean, there's a lot more who swoon over Queen Coral." Phantomtide replies with a soft snort in response to the tone of the Nightwing's voice.

"Well, she is the Queen." Sunny points out, still cuddling the egg and talking to it, which proceeded to make the others smile. No matter who angry anyone was with the recent events, the cute appeal of seeing Sunny like that would make anyone smile.

"And she's doing something right." Phantomtide nods. "I mean. Nobody is that unhappy. There's no grumbling among the guards, or anything form of discontent. Far as I know about." He muses softly, thinking to everyone he knew from the kingdom, before realizing an issue right before Glory addressed it.

"If there's no discontent, then why is someone after that egg? That Sunny has right now." Glory snipes, glancing to the Sandwing, then back to the hybrid.

"Okay, I admit it. That's probably the only real other issue that's been happening."

"Only other real one? What's the other, then?"

"Well, the fact that Blister is allied with Queen Coral, for one. I don't exactly like any of the three sisters for starting the war and dragging the other tribes in, but out of the three, I dislike Blister the most. She's the smartest, but also the most manipulative. And to be fair, Burn tried to have me killed several times, but only for her collection, at the Sandwing Stronghold. Blister thinks I'm a threat, which makes her attempts to control, or perhaps silence me, even worse in my mind."

The others fall quiet at this. Phantomtide noticed that Starflight wore a particularly frightened expression. Before the hybrid realized he had blantly stated he had killed to avoid being killed.

"Moving on." Glory states as she notices Starflight opening his mouth, before promptly shutting it as he saw her looking at him. "Or back, really. Do you know Queen Coral might be killing her own daughters."

"Well...I certainly can't deny if that's fact...but I don't tend to believe everything I hear. I'd like some proof, before conclusions are made, please." Phantomtide responds with a soft sigh.

"So it's a theory, then, at least." Glory nods a bit.

"I'm baaaack!" They suddenly hear Tsunami call from outside of the cave entrance, before flying in and dropping three cauldrons on the cave floor. Sunny immediately seized the closest one, shoving her nose into it. Starflight got up and walked up to the second, and without warning, shot a burst of fire into it. The charred smell that wafted from it signaled the Nightwing had just roasted a whole lot of fish.

"Hey! I like them raw." Tsunami protested.

"Overruled. Raw fish is gross." Glory sticks her tongue out at the Seawing.

"Raw fish is awesome." Tsunami insisted.

"You have unreliable taste." Glory retorts. "You think your terrifying mother is awesome."

"She is _not_ terrifying! She's a wonderful queen!"

"That is what all the scrolls say." Starflight managed to say with a mouthful of charred fish.

"Speaking of which, she actually wrote a lot of those herself." Phantomtide points out as he moves over and gets some of the fish from the cauldron.

" _Really?_ " Starflight blinked in astonishment. Tsunami nods. "Phantomtide is right."

"She's a writer, then? I had no idea. That's so - I mean, I wish I - do you think she'd read something I -" He stammered to the point of stopping, fidgeting with the cauldron. "It's cool, is all." He mumbles, then proceeds to shove another fish into his mouth.

"Anyway, it's not just the scrolls. Her subjects think she's a great queen, too." Tsunami stated loyally.

"Even those outside of her rule think much of the same. I do too, for the most part." Phantomtide chimes in.

"Compelling," Glory shrugs. "Except for the part where she's killing off all her daughters." Tsunami turns to the Rainwing and stated, too shocked to respond.

"Well, wait." Clay pipes up. "You said that's just a theory."

"And a rather good one." Starflight flatly observes. "With her daughters dead, and no sisters either, no one will ever be challenge her for the throne. She could be queen for a hundred years and die peacefully in her sleep instead of in combat."

"That is reasonable, but then who'd inherit the throne? Once she dies peacefully in her sleep? No heirs, no blood relations. And what of Anemone?" Phantomtide questions Starflight.

"He's right. I mean, look at how she takes care of Anemone."

"Like a crazy dragon." Glory interjected, waving a smoky fish at Phantomtide and Tsunami.

"Or like a caring mother." Phantomtide argues.

"It's still a good way to make herself look innocent." Starlight offered. "Besides, think about when the murders started." He waited, with an 'isn't it obvious' expression.

"...Are you referring to Queen Coral's first daughter?" Phantomtide asks.

"Orca, right?"

"Correct!" Starflight nodded with a pleased expression, giving Phantomtide a grin that seemed out of place with how the Nightwing usually treated the hybrid. "She challenged the queen almost the moments she was full grown. I'm sure Coral was more shocked than anyone. Especially when Orca almost killed her."

"However, she only won by accident. Impaling Orca on that narwhal horn she has on the end of her tail." Phantomtide finished for him.

"And? Why would that make her murder all her future daughters."

"Seriously?" Glory scoffed. "She saw how close she could come to death. She realized if she let any of her female children grow up, she might be dead within seven years. Much easier to kill them in their eggs, or as little dragonets, before they become a threat."

"Stop it!" Tsunami clutched her head. "She's not like that. She loves her daughters. When she found the other egg broken…" She paused.

"Hmm? Other egg? Are we missing out on something here?"

Tsunami nods, then proceeds to explain about the Council, her mother's scrolls, some unknown dragon who tried to kill her in the underwater tunnel, and the way Queen oral reacted when Tortoise had failed her.

"So you see," She finished. "It can't be her killing off the female dragonets. She wants them alive more than anyone."

"Someone tried to kill you?" Clay asks in concern. "Are you alright?"

"I'd like to know what would have happened to us if they'd succeeded." Glory snarls softly.

"Umm, wouldn't Phantom have helped us?" Sunny asks, looking at the others.

"Wait, so is Sunny in danger now?" Starflight demands. "Because of that egg? Why would you do that to her."

"I don't mind." Sunny says to Starflight, still awaiting an answer to her question, as she cuddles the egg to her chest, looking more pale than usual now.

"No, listen." Tsunami stamps her foot, then takes a step back towards the cave entrance. "Don't you see? We're doing a good thing by keeping this egg alive. And now Queen Coral has to take care of all of us, because we're protecting her daughter. She can't chain you up and nod feed you anymore - if that was even her idea in the first place."

Glory and Starflight exchange "yeah, right" glances, earning a frown from Tsunami.

"And if we find the real assassin." She quickly continued. "Then we'll be heroes."

"Not if it's your mom." Glory firmly says. "Which it is."

"Can you not? Seriously?" Phantomtide huffs.

"It can't be her." Tsunami states. "The drago who attacked me in the tunnel didn't have a dragonet attached. Where are you suggesting she stashed Anemone while she came after me? And how could have she broken one of her eggs when Anemone is with her at all times."

"She could have sent someone else." Starflight suggests. "Or the attack on you could be unrelated to the princess murders. Perhaps there's another reason someone wants you dead."

"Ooo, I have a few guesses." Glory snipes.

"I think it's Shark." Tsunami states, ignoring the Rainwing. "Tortoise pointed at him before she died. He was at the Deep Palace before the rest of the Council. If I'm right and there's a secret entrance to the hatchery, he could have snuck in to kill the dragonets without anyone knowing. And he could have attacked me in the tunnel, too. Queen Coral thought she'd sent him on ahead already, so nobody knew where he was exactly."

"Tsunami," Clay says as he noses the Seawing with his snout, as his forehead crinkled in worry. "It doesn't sound like you're safe here. Maybe we should go."

"Or at least we should go," Glory suggests. "You can stay here if you really want to. We could leave now, while no one is guarding us."

Phantomtide glanced between all five of the dragonets. The uncertainty around Tsunami seemed so thick he could almost cut it with his talons, as she fingered the pearls around her neck, clearly thinking about the situation.

"No." Sunny says unexpectedly. "I'm not leaving this egg until it hatches." She rests her talons on it protectively, as everyone turned to look at her. "And we can't split up. We have to fulfill the prophecy together."

"I agree with Sunny." Starflight nods. "I don't love it here either, but we have to stay until we meet Blister. That was the whole point of coming here." He glanced over at Phantomtide with a soft stare, one that was returned once the hybrid noticed it.

"Then I think you should stay with us." Clay says as he takes Tsunami's talons in his own. "So we can keep one another safe." Sunny nods vigorously in response to the Mudwing's statement.

"All right." Tsunami nods. "Then I can help you protect the egg as well."

"You'd better." The Nightwing muttered as he glanced to Sunny with a worried expression.

"What about you?" Glory asks Phantomtide. "You've stuck with us so far. And personal feelings, and thoughts, aside, from all of us. Are you going to help if you're planning to continue being with us?"

"Absolutely." Phantomtide replies. "If there is going to be a assassin coming after the egg, they're going to have a rough time, I can assure you that. Whoever it may be."

The others nod, though Starflight does so a bit reluctantly. Phantomtide couldn't get it out of his mind why the Nightwing was acting so hostile or argumentative against him. Besides knowing the hybrid was capable of killing in a fight, there was no other reason for Starflight's disdain. Which served to make him question if Morrowseer had said something to him to make Starflight be that way.

Regardless of those thoughts, no more conversation was made, as the dragonets curled up together to sleep, sheltering the egg in the middle of their pile.

Phantomtide sat down besides the entrance to the cave, glancing outside for a brief moment, then moved back into the cave, lying down close to the pile of dragonets. His thoughts drifted to a rosy-pink scaled Skywing, who was out there, somewhere, before sleep took hold of him.

(After being away for a little over a year, I'm finally back, and am on track with continuing the story! Sorry for keeping you all waiting for so long!)


	22. She who blisters

"WHERE ARE THEY?!"

Tsunami, Sunny, and Phantomtide lifted their heads as they were awoken by the rather loud roaring. All three glanced to the egg, noticing the egg was still with the Sandwing.

"WHERE ARE THE DRAGONETS? WHERE IS MY DAUGHTER? WHERE IS MY EGG?"

Phantomtide sighed a bit and stood up. Queen Coral was apparently not in the best of moods, judging by the volume of her voice. He blinked as he looked to the entrance, freezing almost instantly as he say the shape coiled in the entrance.

"Up here," The shape calls. The weird hiss to it's voice quickly confirmed what, and who, it was. Tsunami likely did too, as she leapt to her feet, before noticing the Sandwing watching them as well. She immediately goes to poke her friends with her claws.

"Wake up, you lazy snoring manatees." She hisses at them as she does so.

"You're a lazy snoring manatee." Glory mumbles with her wings over her head. "And you smell like one too."

"You're going to feel very silly in a minute." Tsunami retorts in a whisper.

"Oh, if you insist," Clay muttered, mostly asleep. "I suppose I can eat one more hippo."

"WAKE UP!" Phantomtide nearly roars, making both Clay and Starflight wake up with bewildered looks.

"Aww…" Clay's wings droop as he shakes his head a bit. "What happened to the hippos?"

"Look!" Tsunami whispers, pointing towards the cave entrance. The other four dragonets went still and silent as soon as they saw the Sandwing in the shadows.

"Well, hello." Blister says with a sly smile. She looks at each of the dragonets, studying them almost, then her gaze lands on Phantomtide. "So nice to meet you, and to see you again. I'm Queen Blister. They're up here." She calls again, out of the cave. "Staying dry out of the storm, I presume. Very wise. I would have done the same."

A flurry of wingbeats announced Queen Coral's arrival on the ledge behind the Sandwing, followed by Anemone and three Seawing queen poked her head into the cave and saw Tsunami.

"Where is my egg?" She demanded, eyeing the other four dragonets.

"Safe. And warm, like I promised." Tsunami replies as she stepped aside, letting her see Sunny coiled around the egg.

"You never said anything about a Sandwing touching my egg." Queen Coral hissed as she lashed her tail.

"Oh, but think about it, Coral." Blister interjected. "There are not ordinary dragons. These are the dragonets of destiny. If they can't be trusted with our future, who can?" She smiled at the Seawing queen, who then took a deep breath and turned to the Sandwing princess with outstretched arms and wings spread wide. "Queen Blister, my friend! You got my message! I'm so glad you came. I knew you'd want to hear right away that we found that dragonets." She waved her tail at the dragonets.

"I was thrilled to hear it," She says after clasping Coral's front talons in her own, before quickly letting go. "And one of them is your beautiful missing daughter, as we always suspected. I'm also surprised that he managed to keep his word to you as well." Blister's black eyes fell on Phantomtide for a moment, before they went back to Queen Coral.

"I knew the Talons of Peace must have sent Webs to steal her. Tsunami, say hello to my ally, Queen Blister."

"We've met." Tsunami said. Behind her, Sunny craned her neck for a better view, Starflight was frozen in apparent fear, Glory seemed more interested in her claws than Blister, and Clay was trying and failing to suppress hungry growls from his stomach.

"Then introduce your friends." Coral ordered, smiling at Blister again.

"Clay, Sunny, Starflight, Glory." Tsunami flicks her claws at each of them as she says their names. Queen Coral frowned at her after she finished. "And I assume you already know Phantomtide."

"Marvelous. All so brave and clever-looking. And yes, I know him. I also heard that you weren't a Skywing, Glory, but that doesn't bother me. Skywings are overrated, don't you agree?"

Glory's wings twitched as her stone-gray scales received a shifting ripple of dark pink across them. Phantomtide snorted, wanting to say something, but kept his mouth shut.

"You 'heard'?" Tsunami demanded. "How? Nobody knew that except our three guardians. They didn't even tell the other Talons of Peace."

"Hmm." Blister's eyes flicked to Tsunami, then away. "Let's just say I have friends. Nightwing friends." Her eyes went immediately to Phantomtide, expecting a reaction which she did see, the hybrid frowning a bit at the mention of her friends. He knew she had contact with Nightwings, but not who exactly, or why she did. "So, I've heard a lot about you." She says, as she slithers up to Starflight and brushed one claw slowly down his neck. After that, she glanced down at Sunny, who was frowning a bit. "Sweet," Blister muses, chucking Sunny under the chin. "And you must be the burly one." She says as she reached out to Clay and squeezed one of the muscles in his forearm.

"I guess?" Clay stammers a bit in response.

"I'm sure you've heard things about me, too." Blister muses as she slides back to Queen Coral's side. "But you can't always trust rumors, propaganda, or one-sided views. Especially when it comes to a big responsibility like the prophecy. So ask me anything you'd like. I'd be delighted to help you make your decision - although, of course I hope you'll choose me." She looks over the five, then back to Coral. "So, Coral, what's for breakfast?"

"Let me guess, fish." Glory mutters softly.

"Yes, what a good idea. Let's go eat." Queen Coral nods. "And then you can tell me the latest updates from the war. We hear something odd is going on with the Skywings. Anemone, Tsunami...Phantomtide, come." Tsunami's gills flared at this, as Phantomtide raised his brow curiously.

"Let the others come too." Blister said before either could speak up. "I'd love to get to know them better."

"All right…" Coral nodded doubtfully, as she wrinkled her snout at the dragonets.

"You can leave that here, though." Blister nodded at the egg.

"No!" Coral and Sunny say at the same time. The Seawings queen gives the little Sandwing a surprised look. Sunny hugs the egg closer.

"No way. It stays with me."

Blister shrugged in response, then the group headed out of the cave and flew up to the feasting table. Once there, everyone arranged themselves around the table as the scents of pickled fish and roasting seagulls surrounded them.

Starflight and the other three were seated to Blister's right, with the Nightwing being the closest to her. Phantomtide set himself on the other side of Sunny, with Clay on her other side, and Glory on Phantomtide's other side. He glanced at the egg for a moment, before looking to Tsunami, who was next to Anemone on the Queen's left. Whirlpool was on Tsunami's other side, making him chuckle a bit. She couldn't be enjoying his prattle and loud slurping, two things mostly everyone could hear but likely were ignoring.

Phantomtide glanced around the room, noticing two of the guards from before, whom he had gotten the keys from to free Clay. He also noticed Angler among them. He wanted to call him over, to talk to him, but before he got a chance, he heard,

"MOTHER!" Tsunami declared dramatically as the wait-staff set bowls of soup in front of each dragon. "I have something DREADFULLY SHOCKING to tell you!" Every dragon present paused to look at her, but the staff continued despite the outburst.

"Oh? Could we discuss it after breakfast? In a civilized fashion?"

"NO," Tsunami replies. "This is TOO SHOCKING."

"Well, perhaps -" Coral started,before Tsunami interrupted her.

"WOULD YOU BELIEVE that my friends - the DRAGONETS OF DESTINY, remember - were CHAINED UP? And STARVED? In YOUR CAVES? By YOUR DRAGONS?"

"What?" Coral flapped her wings.

"I KNOW!" Tsunami practically bellowed. "It's UNBELIEVABLE. I'm sure you didn't know anything about it, of course."

"Of course," Coral states in a hurry. "I would never treat any dragonets that way! Especially my daughter's dearest friends. Who are part of the prophecy and everything."

"And I'm sure you'll want to punish the dragons who disobeyed you by treating my friends so terribly. Right? Like, for instance, the one who lied to you about keeping them well fed?" She shot a glare over at one of the other Seawings present, who was named Lagoon, if Phantomtide recalled correctly. Lagoon froze with a sea snail halfway to her mouth, realizing what had just happened.

"Absolutely. Guards! Throw Lagoon in one of the underwater dungeons!"

"But -" Lagoon protests. "But I was only -"

"Next time you'll obey my orders." The queen said, as a stripe quickly flashed under her wings.

Silence.

"Can't I even -" Lagoon requests, reaching wistfully for her cauldron of soup as the guards pulled her away.

"No breakfast for you. Think about how that feels as you sit in my dungeon."

"And GUESS WHO ordered your guards to chain up Clay?" Tsunami continued, flinging a accusing talon towards Shark. "COMMANDER SHARK! Of all the dragons who should obey you in everything! Is that not UTTERLY SHOCKING?"

"It is. I find it quite hard to believe."

"Imagine the distress the poor guards felt when I explained to them that you would never have ordered those chains on Clay. To have to choose between their commander and their queen! Naturally, they choose you, of course. That's why they gave the key to Clay's chains. Because they understood that's what you would have wanted them to do. Right?"

"Very good." Coral replied slowly. "It sounds like those guards are practically heroes."

"And Shark -"

"To the dungeon with him as well." The queen says with a soft sigh and a wave. The commander didn't protest as Lagoon had. He snarled at the guards who approached him, then shot Tsunami a look full of hatred, before heading off to the dungeon without another word.

"Such excitement." Blister suddenly pipes up. "If we're quite finished with our morning theatrics, I would love to ask you brilliant little dragonets about the prophecy."

"Starflight can recite it for you. He's really good at memorizing things, And then repeating those things over and over, especially when nobody cares to hear them."

"How splendid! How impressive!" Whirlpool said from besides Tsunami, in a voice of sincere admiration.

"I assume you have a plan about how to fulfill the prophecy. I mean, you must, right?" Blister asks. As soon as she does, a tense hush fell over the feasting table. Everyone wanted to hear the answer to this, present or not.

"We're working on it." Tsunami replies. "Obviously we can't say too much."

"This is the information-gathering phase." Glory offered.

"Um," Starflight blurted after getting a look from Blister. "But. We think you, of course - I mean, obviously you - er - you'd make a great, uh, queen. Of the Sandwings. That is. The other two - hardly any competition - really, it's, um, a clear, so to speak, sort of, um, choice."

Phantomtide chuckled softly at the Nightwing's broken speech, but at the same time, he found it curious that Starflight was trying to stay their choice without the input of the others.

"Starflight." Tsunami said sharply. "What are you doing? You don't speak for all of us."

"Oh?" Blister narrows her eyes at Starflight. "Then who does?"

"We each speak for ourselves." Glory states.

"Yeah." Sunny nods as she pipes up.

"And we haven't decided anything." Tsunami says firmly.

"I'mjustsayingshe'dbeallright." Starflight mumbled, subsiding. Which made Blister look mildly disgusted.

"You're quite right, Nightwing." Coral says, patting Blister's talon. "She's an excellent queen."

Phantomtide sighed under his breath. He wanted to know what ran through Coral's head, why she liked the Sandwing princess so much. Even to the point of referring to her with a title she didn't have, yet at any rate, while getting to refer to the Queen as simply Coral, when everyone else formally addressed her. Even Phantomtide did, out of respect for her position.

"Oh." Queen Coral looked thoughtful at something. "Queen Blister, I meant to tell you, the strangest thing happened. We found a dead Skywing in our territory the other day."

Phantomtide snapped out of his thoughts at this, immediately recalling having seen that Skywing. Kestrel, as he had come to know, was recently killed. How and why, were the biggest part of it.

"Really? That sounds like good news to me."

"You're right, that's true." Coral laughed. "But what's really strange is she'd been poison-stabbed by a Sandwing. Why would a Sandwing and Skywing be fighting all the way out here?"

Phantomtide took note of the mention that she was stabbed by a Sandwing's tail tip. Why would that happen? Coral's got a bit of a point there...Kestrel wouldn't be out here anyways, without any good reason...Wait. Blister said she has Nightwing friends, and that's how she knew about Glory. The only Nightwings who know, are Starflight and Morrowseer. And Morrowseer would definitely have a way to get in touch with Kestrel...but then, if that's the case...then Blister is the Sandwing who killed Kestrel?! He glanced at the Sandwing princess with a bit of a stare. If she says anything in response to Coral explaining more, then there might be a clue that proves she did kill Kestrel…

"I wonder who she was." Queen Coral muses. "She had those odd burn scars on her palms."

A gasp of horror came from Sunny. "Oh, no! That sounds like Kestrel! Tsunami, what if it was Kestrel?" She pressed her claws to her snout, her eyes welling with tears, as a heavy silence fell over the table.

"Tsunami…? Is there something you want to tell us?"

Tsunami glanced up, towards the hybrid. He nodded, knowing she might have seen him there where the body was found.

"All right. Yes. I'm sorry. I saw her, and I know Phantomtide did too. It was Kestrel."

Starflight, Glory, and Clay glance to the hybrid, who nods. Sunny lets out a sob and buries her head in her talons, Clay immediately patting her on the back awkwardly.

"Your Sandwing seems surprisingly distressed about this Skywing." Blister points out.

"Kestrel was one of the guardians who raised us." Tsunami replies. "Although she wasn't very nice, Sunny. She doesn't deserve your grief." Sunny didn't reply, or look up, her wings trembling a bit.

"So. Explain this to me. You both recognized this Skywing - A Skywing I have been wondering about for days - and both of you chose not to tell us who she is. Why is that?"

"I didn't think knowing who she was would explain anything. I knew her, but I have no idea why she was out here, or who killed her." Tsunami says and glanced at Glory, Starflight, and Clay apologetically. "And I wanted to tell my friends first. Kestrel wasn't a good parent, but she was one of the only parents we ever knew.I thought they should know - and I just haven't had a chance to tell them."

"I understand perfectly." Blister purred, stroking Coral's talon with one claw. "Forgive her, Coral. It can be shocking, seeing the dead body of a dragon you know. Especially since you probably wanted to slash her throat yourself once or twice in your lifetime - right, Tsunami? I know I felt that way about my mother most of the time."

Phantomtide almost paid no heed to what Blister said, thinking of passing it off as the Sandwing comparing Tsunami to herself. Before realizing one thing. Coral had stated that Kestrel had been stabbed by a Sandwing tail. Nothing there was about the throat being slashed. She knows...there's the crucial part. She knows about Kestrel's throat having been slashed. There's no other way she knows. She killed her. She must have.


	23. Prince Emerald

Phantomtide glanced over at the dragonets, wondering if any of them had caught Blister's slip-up. Only Tsunami and Starflight seemed to be aware of it, the Seawing staring at the Sandwing princess and the Nightwing wearing a puzzled expression.

"How is our secret weapon coming along?" Blister breaks the silence, asking Coral as she leans towards her. Anemone dropped her head and stared unhappily at the table when that was brought up.

"Wonderfully!" Coral states, patting Anemone's head, beaming with pride. "Why don't we show you? Whirlpool, come along."

Whirlpool puffed out his chest as he stood up, and Tsunami got on her feet as well, but Queen Coral shook her head. "You can skip this, dear. I'm sure it won't interest you."

"I'd like her to come." Anemone piped up. "Please?"

"I'm sure it'll be very interesting." Tsunami adds in with earnest enthusiasm. "Everything you do is interesting, mother."

"Please?" Anemone asks the queen again.

"All right." Coral says with a sigh. "But not the others." Her gaze flicks suspiciously to Clay, before she goes with Blister, Anemone, and Whirlpool to a higher level of the pavilion, with Tsunami following after them.

After they had left, the dragonets looked at each other, then back to the table, before getting started on eating, feeling a lot better now that they were out of Blister's presence.

Phantomtide finished the bowl of soup in front of him, then felt a tap on his shoulder. He swiveled his head around to look at who did that, then noticed Angler was standing there. The Seawing was looking much better than he was during the Council meeting. The black coating his scales was almost entirely gone, and his wounds were covered with seaweed bandages.

"Emerald's back and he wants to met you and your friends. I think you know where he is." Angler says, then moves off, rejoining his fellow guards. Starflight glances at the Seawing, then looks at Phantomtide.

"What was that about?"

"You'll see after breakfast." Phantomtide replies.

After they had finished eating, except for Clay, who grabbed a few more fish as Phantomtide lead them to one of the caves at the lower levels of the pavilion. Almost immediately, they were greeted by a grass-green and sky-blue scaled Seawing with jade green eyes and blue markings. The royal pattern was also present on him.

"Hello!" He cheerfully smiles at them. "You must be the dragonets I've been hearing about! Well, except for sister."

"Sister?" Starflight asks, as he and the other three look curious at the Seawing's statement.

"Yeah. I'm one of Coral's sons, which makes Tsunami my sister. Name's Emerald, if you didn't already know. It's a pleasure to meet you." He offers his talons in greeting to the dragonets. Clay takes them with his own and shakes his hand.

"So, you're a prince, then. Funny, I thought there'd be mention of any by now." Glory points out.

"Actually, mother doesn't care too much about us as she does about her daughters. Since only a female of royal blood is able to inherit the throne. Which is fine by me. I mean, it has given me time to travel around Pyrrhia and look for a way to combat what some might call my inevitable fate."

"What's that mean?" Sunny asks curiously. "What fate?"

Emerald looks to a rock next to them. "Jump." He says. The dragonets turn to look at it, in time to see the rock do as he says.

"Wait...what? You're a -" Starflight starts.

"Animus? Yes. Like Phantomtide here." Emerald nods, as the rock falls back down, clinking against the ground. The four look at Phantomtide in surprise when the Seawing says that.

"You're one too?!"

"I am." Phantomtide nods. "But it doesn't take away from my soul, far as I know. I've used it for a long time to help me out, and nothing has happened, as you can see. Emerald started trying to find how that happened, since I'm immune, and wants to do the same for himself, so that he doesn't have to worry about his own soul."

"Huh. That's actually pretty smart." Starflight muses. "Take away the cost of using it...and you can do anything without worry."

"Which would be pretty bad if the Animus in question is someone with bad intentions." Emerald states. "Thankfully, I am not that kind of person, and nor is Phantomtide." He smiles at the hybrid, who returns it, before they both look back to the dragonets. "Hey, isn't that mother's latest egg?" He gestures to the egg with Sunny.

"Oh. Yeah, it is. I'm keeping it warm." She smiles proudly, looking at the egg, which rocked gently as she do. "It moved!"

The others immediately turn to look at Sunny and the egg when they hear that, seeing it rock again, then became still once more.

"That means it's close to hatching!" Starflight exclaims. "Shouldn't be too long now before she comes out."

"It's going to be nice to have a new baby sister. Haven't had one of those since Anemone." He sighs softly. "I wish whoever was behind the killings would just stop already. I mean, killing another dragon is one thing, but killing a newborn or an egg is just plain heartless. Oh, speaking of which. I assume you know about the, ahem, Skywing named Opal? Since you're friends with Phantomtide, and he is friends with her."

"We didn't meet any Skywing with that name when we were held prisoner." Clay replies.

"Oh, she doesn't live in the Skywing Kingdom. Nor is she a prisoner there. She lives with a Nightwing, Metalhide, I believe, and she's a part of -" Before he could continue on, they heard yelling coming from outside the cave.

"Clay!" Tsunami's voice shouted. "Clay! Help!"


	24. The traitor

Clay immediately burst out of the cave at hearing Tsunami, swiftly followed by the rest of them. They look confused, glancing upwards.

"Catch him!" Tsunami shouted, pointing to a plummeting Seawing. Clay shot into the air, banking around to intercept the dragon as he fell. The two collided in midair, causing Clay to tumble as he tried to hang on to the larger and heavier dragon. Managing to slow him down enough for Tsunami to catch up and help from the other side of the unconscious Seawing between them, struggling to bring him over to the pavilion, collapsing on the first level they could reach.

Phantomtide flew over and landed with the other three dragonets around Tsunami, Clay, and the other Seawing. Emerald joined them shortly after, eyeing the unconscious Seawing.

"Wake up." Tsunami shakes him. "Come on, you can't die. Not before I get a chance to yell at you."

"Where did he come from?"

Phantomtide glances upwards, seeing Coral, Anemone, and Blister descending, then glanced past them to the canopy overhead, noticing the dragon-sized gap that was now in the green leaves, allowing a bolt of sunlight to shine through.

"There, most likely." He gestures, making Starflight and Glory glance up as well to the hole.

"Webs?" Sunny touches the Seawing's snout with one front talon. "What are you doing here?"

Queen Coral barked some orders to her guards from elsewhere, but Phantomtide didn't pay attention to that.

"This is Webs? The dragon who stole your egg from the Royal Hatchery?" He glances to Tsunami.

"Yes. This is him." She replies.

Phantomtide frowned a bit. Webs was the only caretaker of the dragonets who remained, and the other two got picked off. If Blister did indeed kill Kestrel as the evidence suggested, she'd want Webs dead as well, for whatever reason.

"Why did you save his life?" The queen hissed at Tsunami, before everyone noticed she had arrived. "After everything he did to you?"

"I thought he might have information we need." She replied. "Maybe about the Talons -"

"Or," Blister interjected smoothly. "Perhaps now we can find out how he snuck into the Royal Hatchery to steal the egg. Clever dragonet. Tsunami must get her brains from you."

Queen Coral hisses and glares down at Webs. "i suppose interrogating him would be useful. Moray, wake him up."

Moray dove over the edge and returned with a large clamshell full of water. She threw this in Webs's face, making Sunny jump back with a little yelp. Webs coughed and sputtered, snorting water back out his nostrils as he slowly sat up, holding his head and gingerly wiping his snout dry.

He gaze landed on the dragonets first, and his whole face lit up with joy. He held out his front talons, and Sunny clutched the one closest to her, smiling back at him.

"But the Skywings...I thought you were dead! How did you - ?"

"We escaped." Glory answers coldly.

"No thanks to the Talons of Peace." Tsunami added. "Or stupid unhelpful Morrowseer. We got more help from Phantom here than both." She nods to him, which makes the hybrid smile a bit.

"It was amazing!" Sunny nods. "You should have seen us! We -"

"We'll tell you about it some other time." Clay interrupts. Sunny looks at him, then over at the Seawings, and snapped her mouth shut.

Webs saw Queen Coral at this, noticing the thunderous look on her face, as well as the Sandwing princess coiled menacingly behind her. He shuddered and winced.

"Welcome back." Coral snarls at him. "I thought you were too cowardly to ever return here."

"I know I am not worthy of your mercy, Your Majesty." Web said, staggering to his feet so he could kneel in front of her. "But I heard - I hoped…"

"Why did you steal one of _my_ eggs?" She demanded. "You could have stolen from any other dragon in the Kingdom of the Sea."

"It had to be an egg due to hatch on the brightest night." Webs replied in a wavering voice. "And it had to fit the prophecy - _the Seawing egg of deepest blue._ I'd seen your eggs when I was guarding them, before I...before i left."

"You mean ran away." Coral snarled again. "In the middle of a battle."

"I remembered her egg." Webs pressed on, his wings drooping. "It was so blue - it had to be the right one. I'm so sorry, Your Majesty." He continued in a rush. "But the prophecy is so important. I would have never betrayed you for anything else, but for peace...how could I not do as the Talons ask?"

"So how did you get into the hatchery?" Coral's tail lashed threateningly. "I had guards posted at that door every moment until the eggs hatched."

"I drugged the guards." Webs answered as he hung his head. "I - I knew someone who helped me slip a sleeping potion into their evening meal. They were asleep when I crawled in and out again with the egg. It wasn't their fault."

"Well," Coral stated dismissively. "I killed them anyway. As for the _someone_ who helped you - your wife, i assume?" Webs flinched at that. "I wondered about that." Her expression was mildly pleased, as if she was putting the pieces of a old puzzles finally into place. "Stupid of her not to run away with you. Of course, that's why she was reassigned from the kitchens to active duty in the war soon after. Too bad that first battle was such a bloodbath."

Webs looked as if all the light had been scraped out of his scales. Sunny made a woeful, sympathetic nose and edged closer, twining his tail around his.

"Your Majesty," Phantomtide piped up. "He may have stolen Tsunami away when she was that egg, but that is too much. Especially since you know the pain of losing the one you love." He points out, referring to Gill, the deceased King of the Seawings, Tsunami's father.

She glared a bit at him when he spoke, but her gaze softened a bit when he mentioned that, before shaking her head and the glare returning almost quickly as she looked back to Webs.

"At least I know the dragonets are safe." Webs says quietly, giving Phantomtide a quick glance. "So you can do whatever you like to me."

"I will." Coral rumbled. "We can start with you telling me where to find the Talons of Peace."

"Why?" Tsunami questioned. "Why would you want to find them?"

"Revenge, dear." Coral replied as she showed all her sharp white teeth. "They stole from me, and no one has ever gotten away with that. Now I must hunt them down and exterminate them."

"Don't you have more important things to do?" Tsunami demanded. "I think they're awful dragons, yes, with a really misguided sense of how to raise dragonets to fulfill a prophecy. But all they want to do is end the war. Isn't that what everyone wants?"

"We're not trying to _end_ the war." Blister replies. "We're trying to _win_ it. I hope you can see the difference."

"You're still ending the war if you win it. Cause once you win it, there's no more war." Phantomtide points out.

"But killing the Talons of Peace won't help with that. That haven't hurt anyone but us five." Tsunami gestures at the other dragonets with her talons.

"In fact," Starflight stays out of the blue. "They almost certainly saved Tsunami's life." The Nightwing froze as everyone turned to stare at him. Queen Coral hissed menacingly. Even Webs looked confused.

"What?" Coral growled.

"Well," Starflight stammered. "The - the - the other female dragonets in her hatching - all died. The same way every one of your potential heirs has died. Whoever is killing them, Webs took her egg away before the assassin could get to it. If her egg stayed in the hatchery, she'd be dead. But stealing her, he - and the Talons of Peace - actually saved her life. Uh. Right?"

"Oh, yeah, that is right!" Emerald unexpectedly adds in.

"Your Majesty!" A small dragon tumbled out of the air and skidded to a stop at Queen Coral's claws. He bowed as low as hs could, covering his head. "We found a suspicious dragon lurking outside. He must be working with Webs."

"Bring him to me." Queen Coral growled in a voice that rang off the cavern walls. The dragon pointed down at the tunnel, and everyone leaned over to see a troop of Seawings, lead by Piranha, bringing someone into the Summer Palace. They heave him out of the water to fly him up to the queen. Almost immediately, the group recognized the dragon.

As it was Riptide.


	25. An easy bargain

Web's green scales paled nearly to gray as Riptide was tossed onto the floor between him and Queen Coral.

"No!" He cried. "He has nothing to do with this! He's never had any contact with me."

Moray tossed another clamshell of water over Riptide, making him groan and shield his eyes.

"It's true." Tsunami states. "Riptide wasn't here with Webs. He's - he's been helping me. Um, with my Aquatic."

"Whirlpool is supposed to teach you that, not this miserable creature." Queen Coral says with narrowed eyes.

"Whirlpool is a horrible teacher." Tsunami flared. "I'd be better off taking lessons from a barnacle."

"She's not wrong." Phantomtide nods, agreeing with Tsunami's statement.

Riptide pushes himself into a sitting position, glancing around at the faces present, before stopping at Webs, the two looking at each other for a long moment.

"Admit your treachery." Coral hisses. "Betrayal runs in your family, after all." She swiped at Riptide's snout, but he stepped out of reach, before being poked in the side with a narwhal spear held by Piranha.

"Don't hurt him. Please. He's not working for the Talons of Peace, I promise."

"Throw them both in the new prison." Coral orders with deep disgust, ignoring her daughter. "We'll find out what we need to know about the Talons later, when I'm feeling a little more violent."

"Don't you have one more question for them?" Blister interjected. Coral swung her head to looks at the Sandwing. "Why they killed all of your heirs." Blister purred. "I mean, it was obviously them, right?"

"Obviously!" Coral burst out, then glared at Webs and Riptide.

"Working together." Blister murmured. "It's the perfect climax to the story."

"It is." Coral agrees.

"Not!" Phantomtide retorts.

"That makes no sense!" Tsunami adds in.

"Just like one of your brilliant mysteries." Blister went on, ignoring Tsunami. "The Claws of Murder, for instance. Of A Tail of Blood. That one was genius."

"It was." Coral agreed even more fervently. "They're the perfect murderers! It all fits!"

"No, it doesn't!" Tsunami shouted. "Why would they do that? There's no motive!"

"And no evidence!" Phantomtide points out. "Your arguement is flawed, Blister!"

"Of course there is! Well, motive, anyways." Coral snarls. "Blister, explain it to them."

"So that Tsunami could return as the only living heir, of course. If they killed off all the other possible heirs, she would become more and more valuable. A bargaining chip if they ever needed it. A powerful tool when they wanted to use her."

"Nobody uses me." Tsunami spat.

"And to be fair, the only one trying to use her is you." Phantomtide glares at Blister, getting one right back from her.

"Wait, Webs can't be the murderer." Clay suddenly says. His large brown head tilted to the side. "He hates killing other dragons. That's why he ran away from you in the first place."

"Nonsense." Queen Coral waves a talon. "He ran away to protect his one scales."

"Even so, I'm not sure that theory works." Starflight adds in, gazing vaguely into the air as if he was trying to solve a math equation. "The princess murders started two years before they stole Tsunami's egg, so the Talons, and especially Webs, wouldn't have known they were going to steal a royal egg at that point -Webs didn't even know he was going to be a Talon at that point. And Webs has been underground with us for the last six years. He couldn't have flown here and back every time he wanted to murder a dragonet." The Nightwing shakes his head. "No, I'm afraid it doesn't add up."

"What he said. Exactly." Tsunami nods.

"So his allies in the Talons of Peace did his dirty work." Blister says, unperturbed. "You know it makes sense, Coral. The Talons have been your enemies for so long, Of course it would turn out that they're the ones behind the murders. It's the ending that wraps everything up."

"That is not true." Emerald shakes his head. "If that's the ending you want to go with, you'd have to track down the actual murderers, not the puppetmaster. Even in the slim chance that Webs is that puppetmaster."

Coral looks at the green dragon, almost surprised to see him, as he talons twitched towards the nearest scroll.

"Why are you doing this?" Tsunami demanded, stepping closer to Blister. "Why pin the murders on Webs and Riptide, unless you're covering your own tracks."

Blister gave a hoot of laughter. "It doesn't matter to me what happens to Seawing princesses. Except that I feel my poor ally's pain, of course. I'm merely pointing out the obvious to her. These two should be executed for their crimes as soon as possible."

"And what if it turns out, it wasn't them?" Phantomtide questions. "After executing them, and the murders continue, then you're going to feel like a fool, and Queen Coral will have lost more daughters."

"Take them away." Queen Coral suddenly states. "We'll decide their fate later." Piranha and her guards closed around Webs and Riptide, dragging them off. "You know what this means, though? We can return the egg to the Royal Hatchery. It's safe now."

"It isn't!" Sunny cried as she wrapped her talons around the egg.

"It possibly is. With Webs locked up, the egg can hatch in the Royal Hatchery, just like it's supposed to."

"You're wrong." Tsunami says. "I'm not risking a dragonet's life because you've fallen for this crazy story Blister has invented."

"It will be perfectly safe." Coral insisted. "Besides, every queen in Seawing history has hatched in the Royal Hatchery."

"Fine." Tsunami says after a long moment. "But I'm staying with it until it hatches."

"In the Royal Hatchery?" Queen Coral tilted her head. "All night?"

"I'll make sure she hatches safely." Tsunami glanced to the egg. "But when I catch the real murderer, I want you to promise that you'll let Riptide and Webs go."

"Ha." Coral snorted. "Webs will never be free again."

"Even if I save your last heir?" Tsunami demanded.

Coral scraped her claws across a rock. "You won't have to. We have the assassins now."

"So it should be an easy bargain to make."

"All right." Coral waves one talon. "I'll promise you Riptide. But Webs has too much to answer for." Blister settled back at hearing that, which easily confirmed who she wanted dead.

Emerald exchanges a glance with Phantomtide. The prince knew better than to trust Blister's stories, knowing what comes of them usually benefits none of her allies.

"But Tsunami, we said we should stay together." Clay protested. "We can't protect you down there."

"And whoever's coming after the eggs will be just as happy to kill you, too." Glory pointed out.

Tsunami shook her head and flexed her claws. "Not if I catch him first."


	26. Prison rescue

"Hey, wake up." Phantomtide heard Emerald say as he was stirred out of his dream. He blinked and looked at the prince.

"Morning. What's up?"

"Good and bad news. While you were sleeping, a lot happened. Tsunami discovered the real culprit, a Animus-enchanted statue of Orca, mother's first daughter. The egg hatched, Auklet, as I heard someone say. And...Blister managed to convince mother to imprison your friends, the dragonets."

"Oh, nice. I assume it's been destroyed? The statue - Wait, WHAT?!" He leapt to his feet. "Of all the things to happen...I swear, if someone doesn't slit Blister's throat for the war, I'm going to do it on my own accord. Do you know where they have been put?"

"Yes. The special prisons. I believe you have been there."

"Oh…" His mind went back, remembering the electric eels. "Great...can you bring me there?"

"Of course! I thought you'd never ask! And to be frank, I was planning to go there with or without you. It doesn't take a genius like your Nightwing friend to figure out Blister is manipulating mother."

"See, this is what I was afraid of." Phantomtide growls as he follows Emerald, the two heading to the special prison location.

Once they got there, they found Anemone standing in front of one of the cells, cascades pouring from the ceiling surrounding a small island with the dragonets. The younger princess saw them coming, waving them over with one wing.

"Phantom? And...you're the one from before…" Tsunami looked at them through the falling water.

"Emerald. Your and Anemone's brother." He introduced himself.

"Brother? I didn't know -"

"Yeah, hold on. I'll get you out first, then we'll talk more, Tsunami" Emerald moves over to the chain that hung along the wall, reaching to pull it.

"Hold on, Emerald." Anemone suddenly says. "Wait for a bit."

"What for?" He looks back at her, but didn't get a response.

Within a bit, they saw someone stumbling down the path towards them, prodded on by a floating spear.

"Ow!" a voice echoed through the cavern. "What is the meaning of - why am I - ow! What - ow! Stop! Ow! I will report you to the - OW!"

"Well, that's not Coral."

"And it's not Shark."

"Not Moray either." Anemone stood up as he approached. The spear prodded the dragon into place besides Anemone, on the edge of the moat.

"Whirlpool?" Tsunami said, thoroughly astonished. "Why would _you_ want to kill me?"

"Rubbish?" The green dragon said with a haughty air. "I would never -" The spear poked him again, a little harder this time. " _Ow._ My goodness. Anemone, I had no idea you were capable of such powerful magic. I must be a brilliant teacher. Of course, I'd be more impressed if it weren't _stabbing me - OW._ "

"I didn't think it would be you." Anemone said as she shifted on her talons uncomfortably.

"We should tell Queen Blister how accomplished you are. She'll be so terribly pleased."

"Don't you dare!" Tsunami snapped.

"Do you really think I'll find you threatening from in there?" He asked.

"If you do, I'll tell Mother you tried to kill me. How do you think she'll feel about that? Oh, and pay attention." Tsunami pointed to Phantomtide and Emeral, who were now standing besides Anemone. Whirlpool glanced to the younger princess, then saw the two, squirming a bit.

"What are you two doing here?"

"Oh, no, go on. Continue talking, why don't you?" Phantomtide glares at him. "Answer Tsunami's question."

He shrugged and reached up to play with the gold hoop earring in his ear. "If you insist. She may find it quite admirable, actually. After all, I was merely trying to ensure that Anemone dear would be queen."

"Me?" Anemone's wings fluttered open and closed. "You don't even like me that much. Why do anything for me?"

"Well, frankly, I don't want to marry her." Whirlpool points at Tsunami.

"Wow." Glory said cheerfully. "That was totally on my list of reasons why someone might want to kill you."

"Don't worry." Tsunami snarled. "I'd rather be torn apart by tiger sharks than ever marry you."

"But I do want to be king." Whirlpool states. "So I thought if I got rid of you, I'd improve my chances of marrying a more agreeable daughter."

"I don't ever want to marry you either!" Anemone cried.

"It's not really up to you." Whirlpool said, taking a step back up the path to the cave entrance. Almost immediately, Phantomtide moves to cut him off, which Whirlpool fails to notice. "Once I tell Queen Coral and Queen Blister about what you can do, they'll be so grateful, they'll let me have anything I want. But of course, then you'll be very busy using your powers to win the war. And you probably won't survive that. So I should really ask for Auklet instead."

"Wow, you could not make that sound more creepy, asking to marry a dragonet that hatched last night." Emerald growls softly. "And that's my sister you're talking about, so that makes it worse."

"You can't tell them!: Tsunami shouted, lunging towards the waterfall, only to be held back by Clay. Phantomtide and Emerald look at the water, as blue lightning crackles through the water. During that, Anemone seized the spear, spun it around, and smacked the side of it into Whirlpool's head. Before anyone could register what happened, his body slipped over the edge and into the moment. Anemone yelped with fear, dropped the weapon, and reached towards the water...but it was too late.

Emerald immediately pulled her back, as a blinding flash of blue sizzled up the cascading waterfall, looking away from the sight. Phantomtide chanced a glance into the moat, seeing the eels thrashing below, but he couldn't see Whirlpool.

"Alright, that's enough. Let's get you out of there." Emerald glares at the spot where Whirlpool disappeared, moving over to the chain and pulling it, stopping the waterfall. The dragonets look relieved, but also terrified as they glance into the moat, before jumping across onto the path.

Tsunami grabbed Anemone's shoulders and shook her until the pale little dragon looked up to meet her eyes.

"You have to get out of here." Tsunami said. "We're going to escape, and I don't want it to look like you were involved. Say you were hanging out with Emerald, and head back with him, as your alibi. All right? Are you both listening?"

"But look what I did." Anemone whispers, pointing to the pool, as Emerald came up by her side.

"You didn't mean to do that." Tsunami says. "Anemone, it was a accident - you didn't push him into the moat! And if it hadn't happened, think how many dragons you might have had to kill with your powers. Now you can tell Mother, with no trainer, your powers seem to be getting weaker. Mess up all the time. Make sure she thinks you're aren't ready and won't be for a long time."

"But on day -"

"One day, very soon, this war will be over. We're going to end it. Trust me." Tsunami squeezed Anemone's front talons in her own. "Not get out of here."

"Good luck." Anemone whispered.

"Good luck to you too." Tsunami wrapped her wings around her sister.

After that, Anemone and Emerald fled up the cave path, vanishing around the bend.

"Now, Phantomtide. Did you see Webs or Riptide anywhere around here?" Tsunami turns to the hybrid.

"Yes. Near the entrance." He leads them over to the location, before Tsunami halts the group, noticing three guards standing on the ledge outside of the prison. At the same time, Clay pointed out the island Webs and Riptide were on to her.

"There it is again," Sunny suddenly whispers. "Don't you all hear that?"

"Hear what?" Clay whispered back.

Phantomtide glanced around, perking his head up a bit to try to hear what she hears.

"I don't know...I keep hearing - I think I'm hearing wingbeats."

"There are Seawings flying all over the palace." Glory points out.

"I know. This is bigger, higher - I'm not sure."

"Don't worry so much. I'm sure you're imagining things."

Sunny stamped one of her feet and craned her neck towards the outside. "No, I'm definitely sure." She stated firmly. "I hear wingbeats above the canopy. Lots and lots of them."

"Sunny -" Tsunami started, before Clay's and Starflight's heads shot up.

"I think she's right." Clay says.

"I hear it too…" Phantomtide mutters. "And…"

"You don't think -" Tsunami inhales sharply.

"I smell fire, too." Starflight adds in as his tail lashes.

"Oh no…" Phantomtide curses under his breath.

Tsunami burst out of their hiding spot, running towards the guards. "Look out! Warn the palace!" She yelled to them. All three jump and two of them accidentally dropped their spears. "Move! Seawings! Mother! Look out! We're under attack!" She yells as she shoves them aside and stood on the ledge.

And then the first firebomb crashed through the canopy.


	27. Siege escape

Phantomtide and the dragonets watches as large sections of the canopy collapsed, carrying flaming branches, leaves, and debris down onto the Summer Palace.

"Move!" The hybrid shouted, rushing up to the chain that was connected to Riptide's and Webs's cell. He pulled on it swiftly, wanting to open it up as fast as possible. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Tsunami and Clay on the ledge, talking to each other and to the guards.

By the time the guards had taken off to help defend, Phantomtide had already shut off the water.

"Tsunami?" Riptide asks once he sees her, smiling at her.

"Hey there. The dragonets of destiny specialize in dramatic rescues, you know. Are you impressed?"

"Very." He hops over the moat, landing besides er, as Webs follows after him. Another pair of fiery logs crashed past right outside, and more screams echoed from below, causing Riptide to flare his wings, startled and horrified.

"The palace is under attack," Tsunami explains. "It'll make escape tricky, but -"

"Wait." Riptide says, catching one of her talons. "Tsunami. I have to tell you something. I - I do work for the Talons of Peace." Tsunami stared at him. "Please listen. I joined them because I wanted to find out more about my father, but they wouldn't tell me anything except that he was safe." He looked down. "I've been working with them for a few years now, passing them information about the Seawings."

Phantomtide went up to the ledge, taking a look around the area, noticing the damage that was being caused by the firebombs. He heard a enormous crash from somewhere, but couldn't see what it was. He glanced back, seeing the five dragonets and the two Seawings burst out of the cave, following after them. Below them, dragons were still trying to shove their way into the tunnel, and the churning mass of wings and scales around the exit didn't look any smaller than it had before.

"We can't go that way."

"Then the canopy is our best shot." Phantomtide glances up, along with everyone else, seeing three red dragon shoot by, breathing fire.

"I don't really love that plan either." Starflight replied in a smaller voice.

"Sunny, Starflight, stay below Clay's wings." Tsunami calls out after yanking Glory out of the path of a flaming log. Clay stretched his wings out as they ducked underneath on either side of him. Tsunami then surged ahead of them, as Phantomtide held the back of the group, glancing back at the palace as they departed through the canopy. He flew on, tailing right after Clay, Sunny, Starflight, Glory, and Webs, after noticing Riptide and Tsunami had stopped to talk. He paused, then heard wingbeats approaching. He turned around just in time to see Webs get grabbed by his tail by Blister. He roared and flew at her, just as she stabbed her poisonous barb towards his heart, throwing her off of him and landing a solid hit to her chest, causing blood to come out of the wound. Tsunami grabbed Webs and towed him away, with Phantomtide blocking the Sandwing from pursuing.

"Next time we meet, you're not going to survive, Princess Blister. Count on it." He snarls at her, then quickly uses his magic to redirect a flame log towards her back, which hits her squarely, causing her to roar out in pain, before he flies after Tsunami and Webs.

By then, Blister had recovered, hovering in the air and watching them go, her cold glittering black eyes seeming to follow them.


	28. Plans and Surprises

The group had stopped on a beach. It was dark out, long after sunset, and small stars shone in the night sky, like the silver scales on the underside of Starflight's wings.

Phantomtide looked at the others, Webs laying on a patch of moss, breathing in a nasty shallow way. Likely due to the poison that he had been hit with, from Blister's tail barb. Thankfully, she had missed his heart, but the poison was still very much a problem. Sunny was curled up besides him, giving him a bit of warmth from her scales, as Clay was peering at the scratch, which was still oozing and starting to turn black around the edges.

"We need help." Clay says. "I have no idea how to fix this." His expression was woeful.

"Who would know how to cure someone of Sandwing venom?" Sunny asks. "Sandwings, I guess." She answered herself. "But I don't know where we'd find one we could trust."

"The Talons of Peace?" Starflight suggested doubtfully.

"I can't go back there. And you shouldn't either." Webs states. ""If Crocodile was a infiltrator, there could be others. I don't know who's safe for you and who's not."

"Seriously. Even the 'good' dragons all seem to have plans for us." Tsunami sighs.

" _Gosh_ , I hope Blaze is better than the other two." Sunny says fervently.

"We can probably find her with the Icewings. But we'll have to be very, very careful this time."

"Yeah." Clay nodded in agreement. "I vote for not getting locked up ever again."

"Maybe we should try a different approach." Glory suggested. "Maybe this time we could _not_ barge in, yelling, 'We're the dragonets of destiny! We're awesome and special! We'd make terrific prisoners!' Just an idea."

"Do you know what we're supposed to do?" Sunny asks Webs hopefully. "Did the Talons have any plans about how we could fulfill the prophecy?"

"If they did," Web replies. "They didn't share them with me."

"Awesome." Glory muttered.

"I know how might help Webs with the poison." Tsunami suddenly states.

"Who?" Clay asks.

"The Rainwings." Glory twisted around and gave her a sharp look. "Think about it. They have venom, too, obviously. They must know something about what to do when you poison the wrong dragon."

"True. Even if it's a different kind of venom...that's still a good point." Starflight nods

"And then we can look for Glory's family. Which I think is only fair."

The Rainwing's scales showed small puffs of pink blooming in her scales at this.

"Are you - Are you sure? That's what we should do next?"

"Absolutely." Sunny smiles. "We should definitely go find your home, Glory."

"I bet it's beautiful," Clay says in his sweet, earnest way. "And your family will be so happy to see you."

Webs let out a small groan, but when everyone turned to look at him, he closed his eyes as if he'd fallen asleep. Phantomtide chuckles softly.

"The Rainforest is also the nearest one from our current position. And I know for a fact Pine lives near it, so if the Rainwings can't help, I might seek her out. She knows her way around healing dragons." The hybrid states.

"Oh? Then that's perfect. That's what we'll do."

"After we rest?" Sunny asks hopefully.

Tsunami nods. "After we rest." Sunny lays back down with a relieved sigh, and soon, she was fast asleep.

"I'm sorry about your mother." Clay said to Tsunami after flopping down next to her. "And the palace. And Blister. And Whirlpool. And Riptide. And -"

"All right, I get it, thanks." Tsunami cuts him off with a nudge.

"I hope they all make it through the attack." He says quietly.

"Me too." She nods. "But they'll be safe in the Deep Palace. At least they have somewhere else to go. And I think Anemone will be a good queen one day. She has Coral's good qualities, but she thinks for herself, and she's still young. She'll get stronger and more independent as she gets older."

"If she's anything like you, 'independent' will be an understatement." Glory points out, then tucks herself along Clay's other side, and he put one wing over her. Starflight had tentatively nosed in beside Sunny, and now his eyes were closed as well.

"The Kingdom of the Sea wasn't the right place for me anyway." Tsunami stated.

"What about your great royal destiny?" Glory teased. "What about how you'd be the greatest queen of all time?"

"Well," Tsunami shrugged. "I guess I'll settle for being the boss of you guys."

"Ha!" Glory laughed. "You can certainly keep trying." She reached over to nose Tsunami's shoulder as amused yellow bubbles floated through her wings.

Soon enough, they were asleep as well, shortly followed by Clay. Phantomtide remained awake, glancing to the sky, then back. A small rustling behind him made him swivel his head around, before seeing a Skywing come into the spot the group was in. It wasn't just any Skywing, however. Her rosy pink scales, and her eyes a joy-filled sky blue.

"Hello, Opal. What's brought you all the way out here?"

"Well, I know about who I really am. And what role I am supposed to play. Father knew your course, so he lead me here and told me to join you, and your friends." She lies down besides him, and he puts one wing over her.

"Well, if that's the case...glad to have you with us. I'll have to explain it to them in the morning, though. Why there's a Skywing next to me."

She giggles. "Eh, you can handle it. It's not the toughest task you've had to do."

He nods, then settles down, falling asleep, with her doing so as well, shortly after he did.


End file.
